4 ms·

Wow, I knew flying light aircrafts was dangerous, but this really surprised me. And people tell me I'm taking risks riding a motorcycle.

sokoloff 13y ago
If you factor in all risks (the "as experienced" rate), GA flight is about as dangerous per mile as riding motorcycles. I firmly believe that 2/3rds of the fatality risk in GA is pilot-controlled and readily avoidable: weather, fuel exhaustion and "ostentatious display" (buzzing, etc) are relatively easy to avoid with nothing more than basic knowledge and firm discipline. On a motorcycle, many risks are rider-controlled but a lot of your safety is in the hands of people near you that you'll never meet. Less so in aviation, IMO.
- pubman 13y ago
  ^ What he said
- nathanstitt 13y ago
  IFR rated pilot here that's been flying for ~ 10 years. I agree with you 100% on the risks being largely under the pilots control. However I also believe that there's something about aviation that attracts the type of people who are uniquely unsuited for it. Daredevils, non-detail minded, and just plain incompetent. When you read the NTSB reports and such it's just not pretty. Pilot after pilot runs out of fuel or manages to run a perfectly good airplane into the ground / side of a mountain because they weren't observant. I'm not sure what the solution is though. We've had 30 years of the FAA and all the associations preaching safety to no effect. More regulation won't help either since all the main accident factors are already against some regulation or another.
  - wpietri 13y ago
    Doing user studies and paying attention to my own behavior, I grow more and more aware how rare consistent, no-error performance of tasks is. Stupid mistakes now seem more the human norm than the exception. What's especially sinister to me is how long it took me to really get that. And how much my self-perceived skill is more about my ability to recover from error than my ability to avoid error in the first place. Especially when it's over time periods long enough for fear to wear off. I'd never take up flying, because I know my attention would wander during those long periods of apparent calm but actual risk. Regarding why aviation attracts the wrong sort of people, if you haven't read about the Dunning-Kruger effect, I think it'll ring some bells for you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    - nathanstitt 13y ago
      That's a great point. As a programmer it's also taken me quite awhile to recognize that I'm not a perfect snowflake and am quite capable of writing code that contains horrendous bugs. I've always recognized that while flying though, because I've always felt like a neophyte at it, and not a "real" pilot. Statistically speaking, it's pretty safe to allow your attention to wander a bit while on a long uneventful flight. That's why there are auto-pilots. The real danger comes in whenever you're close to the ground or in bad weather. Surprisingly the #1 thing you can do to avoid an accident is just make sure you have enough fuel. Which is a very low bar to clear.
      - sokoloff 13y ago
        Surprising, astonishing, disappointing, and sadly, it's absolutely true...
- pessimizer 13y ago
  1) Riding motorcycles is very dangerous:) 2) What's the average mileage of a motorcyclist compared to a pilot?
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

sokoloff 13y ago

If you factor in all risks (the "as experienced" rate), GA flight is about as dangerous per mile as riding motorcycles. I firmly believe that 2/3rds of the fatality risk in GA is pilot-controlled and readily avoidable: weather, fuel exhaustion and "ostentatious display" (buzzing, etc) are relatively easy to avoid with nothing more than basic knowledge and firm discipline. On a motorcycle, many risks are rider-controlled but a lot of your safety is in the hands of people near you that you'll never meet. Less so in aviation, IMO.

pubman 13y ago
^ What he said
nathanstitt 13y ago
IFR rated pilot here that's been flying for ~ 10 years. I agree with you 100% on the risks being largely under the pilots control. However I also believe that there's something about aviation that attracts the type of people who are uniquely unsuited for it. Daredevils, non-detail minded, and just plain incompetent. When you read the NTSB reports and such it's just not pretty. Pilot after pilot runs out of fuel or manages to run a perfectly good airplane into the ground / side of a mountain because they weren't observant. I'm not sure what the solution is though. We've had 30 years of the FAA and all the associations preaching safety to no effect. More regulation won't help either since all the main accident factors are already against some regulation or another.
- wpietri 13y ago
  Doing user studies and paying attention to my own behavior, I grow more and more aware how rare consistent, no-error performance of tasks is. Stupid mistakes now seem more the human norm than the exception. What's especially sinister to me is how long it took me to really get that. And how much my self-perceived skill is more about my ability to recover from error than my ability to avoid error in the first place. Especially when it's over time periods long enough for fear to wear off. I'd never take up flying, because I know my attention would wander during those long periods of apparent calm but actual risk. Regarding why aviation attracts the wrong sort of people, if you haven't read about the Dunning-Kruger effect, I think it'll ring some bells for you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  - nathanstitt 13y ago
    That's a great point. As a programmer it's also taken me quite awhile to recognize that I'm not a perfect snowflake and am quite capable of writing code that contains horrendous bugs. I've always recognized that while flying though, because I've always felt like a neophyte at it, and not a "real" pilot. Statistically speaking, it's pretty safe to allow your attention to wander a bit while on a long uneventful flight. That's why there are auto-pilots. The real danger comes in whenever you're close to the ground or in bad weather. Surprisingly the #1 thing you can do to avoid an accident is just make sure you have enough fuel. Which is a very low bar to clear.
    - sokoloff 13y ago
      Surprising, astonishing, disappointing, and sadly, it's absolutely true...
pessimizer 13y ago
1) Riding motorcycles is very dangerous:) 2) What's the average mileage of a motorcyclist compared to a pilot?

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]