The Risk of Dying Doing What We Love

Interesting statistics, comparing different outdoor activities, including General Aviation, as far as the involved risks are concerned (source: https://chessintheair.com/the-risk-of-dying-doing-what-we-love)

I do not expect to log 64000 hours in my aviation career in this life and do not plan to Base Jump, so at least statistically, my life appears to be on the safe side...

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Interesting. Not sure if I buy the formula 1 stat. Maybe all years combined but nowadays seems pretty dang safe.

 

Very interesting data but I looked for air show danger level and didn't see any. Years ago when we stopped doing air shows, my wife and I tallied the number of fatalities of air show performers, some we had flown with and some not. During a period of 10 years we counted 30 fatalities. All were not at air shows but all were flying incidents. As far as my experience during those years, I performed with or witnessed flyers like Bob Hoover, Art school, Patty Wagstaff, Chuck Lyford, Joe Hughes, and many others. A buddy of ours started his act with a 13 turn inverted spin and never had a problem. There were no air show incidents with these pilots. Art Scholl lost his life while filming for a motion picture. There was one fatal crash at Abottsford that involved an inexperienced pilot but in all the years that I was going up there and seeing the hundreds of show hours flown by too many pilots to count, there were only two incidents: one gear up and locked and the other was due to an ego down and locked. It will be interesting to hear what caused the Mowhawk to go down at the Stuart air show.

 

Curious to know who paid for that study and published it. It's clear the message is "it's safe to fly commercial." Which I agree with overall.

However, there appear to be some flaws in how they sampled data to tell the story. For example, including only certain countries' statistics.

 

Have lived in an air park for the last 21 yrs, during which time 3 residents have plowed into inmoveable objects, ie the ground.

 

You notice it says "Driving (US)". There are many countries out there where driving would probably fall in the "Somewhat Dangerous" category or maybe even worse.

I think the stat on F1 racing is based more on historical data. Considering that we've only lost one driver since 1994 (and even that was a freak accident), I think it would rank higher.

 

Well there was Jules Bianci a few years ago.

 

He's the one.

 

The choice of title for this thread caught my eye...

Barry Schiff, a leading aviation columnist, wrote an article that had a lot of impact. I think it was after Steve Fossett's disappearance.. He noted the absurdity of the platitude "at least he died doing what he loved". Think about it. That's exactly what you DON'T want.

You want to live doing what you love and die at home having enjoyed a rich life.

Now, back to the regularly scheduled program...
Cheers,
- Art

 

I never understood that old saw either. Dying is dying. What you were doing when it takes place is irrelevant to the incident. Like Woody Allen offered," I don't mind dying. I just don't want to be there when it happens."

 

Most F1 cars are retired from the pro series, and are privately owned. But I'll bet that stat is for all "Formula" cars.

 

Didn't Nuvolari say he wished he had died on the track ?

 

Yes, he did say that. All you have to do is answer the question for yourself. Maybe he hated growing old and dealing with the experience of defeat. To each their own. https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2014/01/14/racing-heroes-tazio-nuvolari/

 

After his stroke, no doubt Nuvolari wished he had died in a racecar crash. He only lasted 9 months afterwards, at any rate.

 

Fully agree, it is about living doing what you love. But how you die then is irrelevant. On the death bed, people predominantly regret what they did not do in their life, not what they did.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/feb/01/top-five-regrets-of-the-dying

 

1994?

 

Read what I said: "since 1994".

 

Oh yea, don’t know what I was thinking. I guess I read it wrong.

 

Interesting statistics. I have always wanted to get into gliders. I knew they were dangerous, but didn't realize they were twice as dangerous as motorcycles. Do y'all have any thoughts/insight into glider safety?

 

My motorcycle is insanely fast. The category must be adjusted.

 

I wonder if that includes scooters.

couple with the "Formula 1" category, I find this data suspect.

 

I got some friends who do that, and I know one who quit. They have accidents. A gust of wind can slam you into the side of a mountain. The same thing happens to wingsuits. They just don't have enough weight.

The skydivers seem to have a lot of accidents as well. It usually involves a parachute that didn't open. They also had a jump plane that crashed and burned on takeoff recently. Horrible accident. But if I worked in a tall building, I would bring a parachute just in case !