Comments on: A Very Tough & Diverse Week

By: Valetta Mowry

Valetta Mowry — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:18:25 +0000

The problem with a lot of areas of the pilot population is that a lot of private pilots do not attend aviation safety seminars. Every time I attend one, or make a presentation, I see the same faces. Those pilots are always ‘hungry’ for more information. Little bits of knowledge to put in your brain “briefcase” in the event something happens that you need that little “MacGyver” moment.

We are trying to encourage more pilots to attend seminars to increase awareness to new procedures being put in place as well as help them stay safe. Plus the camaraderie is a good thing to share experiences and passion for flying.

By: Bruce Landsberg

Bruce Landsberg — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 20:52:59 +0000

Terry….

The last number I’ve heard on highway fatalities was 37,261. Roaming the NHTSA site is a massive number of statistics so I’ll try to get this in the best context I can.

NHTSA says there were 17.9 fatalities per 100K drivers. Using approximately 650,000 airmen as the denominator, that works out to 83.2 or not quite five times the fatality potential compared to driving. We could also look it by registered vehicle and that is 14.5 fatalities per 100K vehicles compared to 216 per 100K registered aircraft or about 15 times worse.

The last time we attempted to equate GA flying on a per vehicle mile basis to cars – which gets in to some really spooky math it worked out that we were about 7 times worse.

Bottom line – GA flying in light aircraft is absolutely not safer than driving. Good blog topic for next week

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 20:33:07 +0000

Terry W: The last two sentences of your comment, above, are baffling. Are you really arguing that “remembering how much safer aviation is compared to other forms of transportation is even more important [than] continually making aviation safer”? In other words, a passive mental exercise is more useful to aviation than actively working to improve safety?

While it’s amusing and perhaps comforting to cite the difference between aviation and motor vehicle fatalities, it’s not useful. Almost everyone rides in a motor vehicle, and most do it on a daily basis. Very few people fly daily. Driver training and competence varies wildly and a regrettably large number of drivers are impaired. Most pilots are well trained, conscientious and sober.

I think the point Bruce was trying to make in this piece was that GA is much more diverse than many people realize and that that diversity presents unique risks that aren’t present in airline flying.

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:47:20 +0000

Although I’m currently a student pilot, I’ve lived and worked around aviation most of my life, including six years in Army aviation. When viewing the question of holding GA to Airline/Corporate standards, I have to ask “which standards? All of them or those that apply strictly to aviation safety in a general sense?” As you stated, aviation will never be perfectly safe, but there are certainly aspects of Airline standards that may further improve GA safety. For example, the mechanical failure of the aileron cable. Would this have been preempted by a more rigorous inspection cycle? Perhaps, perhaps not. The pilot with the medical mishap; although never a guarantee, would a more thorough physical have caught the warning signs?

I personally am of the opinion that less government is good government in most aspects of our lives, but aviation safety impacts more than just the PIC, and not all pilots use sound judgment in their actions.

By: Terry Welander

Terry Welander — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:29:16 +0000

While your aircraft accident vigil is laudable, keeping the big picture is substantially
more important. Over 20,000 people per year die on American roads and highways. That is over 50 per day. Continually making aviation safer is important.
Remembering how much safer aviation is compared to other forms of transportation is even more important.