More dangerous, flying vs driving..

Flying, Driving, Motorcycling etc are as safe or as dangerous as the operator decides to make it. The penalty for a mistake is higher for motorcycling and flying due to less protection or higher speeds or both. It is not the fall, but the sudden stop that gets you.

Flight on a per mile basis is fairly safe; take off and landing transitions being the most dangerous periods. IMO driving in DC is more likely to result in an accident, however the consquences of a accident in an aircraft is more likely to be fatal than in a car. It is all about managing the risk and avoiding the sudden stop.

 

I'm relatively new to flying, but IMO, the risk of flying is a highly variable thing to calculate.

For example, flying a small single-engine trainer on a clear, calm day, with minimal traffic up in the air at the same time, over open farm land, is a pretty safe activity.
Most small trainer planes can land, in an engine-out situation, at a speed below 35 knots. So, even one of the worst case scenarios is likely survivable.

The opposite is also true. Flying the same trainer in an approaching thunderstorm, low on fuel, after sunset, with airsick passengers on board, to an airport you've never been to before, is a recipe for disaster.

Every factor either adds or subtracts to the safety margin. Safe flying is all about good judgment, good equipment, and good training.
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There are a lot of variables that go into that and the operator is a big factor. You couldn't pay me to go for a highway ride in a car with a 12 year old driving. I also wouldn't go in an airplane with something with only a few hours of experience.

With that said, I would imagine that mechanical error results in a higher fatality rate in airplanes than in cars. I've had a couple alternators and flat tires pull me to the side of the road and I never felt in danger of dying. If something happens in an airplane, I'd think you have a higher chance of injury. Maintaining your aircraft properly and keeping records of service is one way to reduce the likelihood of that happening.

Weather is also a role in both aircraft and cars...heavy thunderstorms are deadly in both cases imo. It's probably obvious, but collisions are more common in cars so you have to watch out for others more while driving (especially while on a motorcycle).

 

All good points here. I'd just like to ad that, much like in an auto or on a motorcycle, sometimes you can be as responsible as possible, but it isn't enough to make up for "the other guy". Just yesterday, I flew into a non-towered field 50 or 60 miles Southeast of my home field. Apparently, everyone knows everyone at this place, and everyone was also in the pattern simultaneously...not giving ANY consistent position reports. HUGE mess. I had someone mysteriously "show up" on final a little while back, again, no communications, just straight in after everyone else in the pattern had flown a standard traffic pattern. BIG eyes will serve you well.

 

I grew up flying from un-controlled fields and all of us had pattern etiquette drilled into us and we followed it. If you got caught exercising bad manners and/or bad judgement , you got an immediate chastising by the entire gang. NO STRAIGHT IN APPROACHES, NO 707 STYLE THREE MILE FINALS, AND NO CUTTING IN FRONT OF SOMEONE ALREADY IN THE PATTERN. You over-flew the field at above pattern altitude, determined wind direction and pattern circulation, entered the downwind at a forty five behind the last guy, and joined the parade.

 

Yes! Of course, that's what is taught now as well, from the very first day you start doing landings. At least that's how it was for me. There's nothing more dangerous and frankly annoying than people not observing the rules of the traffic pattern.

Not being on the radio out of sheer laziness ticks me off, too. If you don't have one, OK, but if you do(like most people), USE IT!!

 

I agree 100%. Most fields now at least have a unicom. If you don't know if they do, use your radio to announce your intentions. My wife and I passed over a fatal accident at a field south of Seattle where a guy made an unannounced entry into traffic from the east and made a left turn onto final at the same time an airplane in the pattern was making a right turn from base leg to final. While both were probably looking at the strip while they were banking, they collided belly to belly. On the way back to our field she asked how that could happen so we had a lesson in how to enter traffic properly. When we reached our base I told her to figure out what we should do and based on the position of the wind tee and the pattern markers she correctly figured that we should enter the downwind leg from a right turn. As we passed over the runway at 1000 feet and started to let down for our entry she tapped me on the shoulder and asked, "Why is that Bonanza taking off in the wrong direction?" Sure enough, a resident "professional" was taking off downwind causing a guy on final to break away. His answer to his indiscretion was, " WELL, I announced what I was going to do.!" He was headed south and wanted to make a " straight- out" departure. How do you beat that? Keep your eyes open !
Switches

 

Brilliant.

 

Since my partner and I were flying "those little old airplanes" we were at constant odds with the local "money" and had many arguments about " ownership of the airport". A couple of them realized how cheap it was to fly one of those little old airplanes so they bought a Taylorcraft in which to build their time. Their attempts to fly it sans instruction AND taildragger time was something out of the Keystone Cops. The airplane lasted exactly 10 days when one of the new owners ground looped it on take off and ran it into the office building. There were no more comments about our practicing one wheel wheelies or short field landings and other things with those little old airplanes.
Switches

 

Once again, you said it all in one post.

Scycle, During your flying instruction and subsequent flying years you will find the occasional knot head that will do things counter to how Bob described them but they are far fewer than the knot heads that sit in the left lane with a cell phone in their ear that refuse to yield right of way.

Having said that, it is my opinion that flying, and quite frankly, general aviation aircraft is far more safe than driving, and I feel it is more safe than commercial aircraft.

I feel more comfortable flying in a 65 year old Stearman than any airliner simply because I'm doing the flying and I know its maintenance history and present mechanical condition. These facts set my mind at ease and I don't even have to take my shoes off and be treated like a terrorist.

When I learned to fly tail draggers on a little grass strip in Buckley, Wa I was told those set of "rules" that Bob mentioned and I think it was in THAT order. We follow them and I practice that everywhere I go and it's never failed me.

My advice is to research flying schools and the average costs for a private ticket and have that money on hand BEFORE you start flying. Also start your instruction during a good weather time of year where you plan to train. This way you can fly more often and by doing this you won't be flying a lesson re-learning what you did in the last lesson which often happens when you fly "as you get the money for a lesson".

If at all possible, interview available instructors and hire one who's personality yours will work well with and try to stay with one instructor, this saves time and money. Have fun and fly the airplane, don't let the airplane fly you...

 

My most memorable incantation or invocation or a just plain warning came from one of my instructors after I allowed my concentration to wander. He sat me down in the wet grass with my butt soaking up the cold dew and towering over me said, " Boy! That airplane is just waiting for a chance to kill you and if you give the smallest opening it will take it!" Since then I have always considered the airplane as an adversary that likes to play the game as long as you play by ITS rules. Break the rules and the game can be over. I imagine that I am not the only one to have bent the rules a bit and escaped but then that is the fun of life.