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As a private pilot, small a/c flying is as safe as you make it. As much as pilots understand the concepts, they tend to fall back to baser instincts when an eng

As a private pilot, small a/c flying is as safe as you make it. As much as pilots understand the concepts, they tend to fall back to baser instincts when an engine goes bad at the worst time.

afterburner 13y ago
Right, this is where the experience comes in I imagine, and the requirement for X amount of flight hours for Y job. It's not about how easy it is to fly in nominal conditions, but rather how those one in a thousand or million events get handled, in between the hours of "tedium".
jedrek 13y ago
Not to mention the absurd number of small planes that go down due to running out of fuel.
- WalterBright 13y ago
  My father was a flight instructor for the Air Force in the 1950s. He said the most common causes of accidents were running out of fuel, flying into bad weather, and failing to warm up the engine before takeoff. > As the single-engine Marchetti climbed during takeoff, the engine suddenly quit. That's the symptom of failing to warm up the engine properly - it quits just after leaving the ground.
- hindsightbias 13y ago
  I think this is the right a/c: http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=20090128X04223 http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=20090128X... Had fuel, wrong tank. Not enough altitude to try to make it back to a runway. One reason why I appreciate my glider rating - we always know where/when we're going if our engine (tow plane or winch) stops.
- TheAnimus 13y ago
  Or those who are flying in poor weather ('marginal VFR'). So many accidents read as the pilot really shouldn't have, but did anyway. These can be greatly mitigated by ensuring that pilots stay current, for instance the clubs I belong to demand 6 monthly re-testing, rather than 2 years the license demands. Not to mention, if you don't fly for 4 weeks, you have to pass a mini re-test. In my clubs long history they have never lost a club plane or pilot.

As a private pilot, small a/c flying is as safe as you make it. As much as pilots understand the concepts, they tend to fall back to baser instincts when an engine goes bad at the worst time.

afterburner 13y ago

Right, this is where the experience comes in I imagine, and the requirement for X amount of flight hours for Y job. It's not about how easy it is to fly in nominal conditions, but rather how those one in a thousand or million events get handled, in between the hours of "tedium".

jedrek 13y ago

Not to mention the absurd number of small planes that go down due to running out of fuel.

WalterBright 13y ago
My father was a flight instructor for the Air Force in the 1950s. He said the most common causes of accidents were running out of fuel, flying into bad weather, and failing to warm up the engine before takeoff. > As the single-engine Marchetti climbed during takeoff, the engine suddenly quit. That's the symptom of failing to warm up the engine properly - it quits just after leaving the ground.
hindsightbias 13y ago
I think this is the right a/c: http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=20090128X04223 http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=20090128X... Had fuel, wrong tank. Not enough altitude to try to make it back to a runway. One reason why I appreciate my glider rating - we always know where/when we're going if our engine (tow plane or winch) stops.
TheAnimus 13y ago
Or those who are flying in poor weather ('marginal VFR'). So many accidents read as the pilot really shouldn't have, but did anyway. These can be greatly mitigated by ensuring that pilots stay current, for instance the clubs I belong to demand 6 monthly re-testing, rather than 2 years the license demands. Not to mention, if you don't fly for 4 weeks, you have to pass a mini re-test. In my clubs long history they have never lost a club plane or pilot.