general public's perception of "those little planes"

Re: general public\'s perception of \"those little planes\"

Quoting from a NHTSA press release:
Though overall fatalities increased to 42,815 in 2002 from 42,196 in 2001, the fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT) remained at 1.51, a historic low. According to Federal Highway Administration estimates, VMT increased in 2002 to 2.83 trillion, up from 2.78 trillion in 2001.

So, using an average (on the conservative side) of 60 mph for those 100 million miles, that's 1.51 fatalities for every 1.67 million hours, or .091 fatalities for every 100,000 hours. Compared to "2.18 fatalities per 100,000 flight hours" from SierraPilot's post, automobile travel would seem to be much safer on a per hour basis.
I think we're just deluding ourselves by suggesting that GA flight, on average, is safer than automobile travel. You can say that it all depends on the pilot and how safe he/she makes it, but the averages speak for themselves.
 
Re: general public\'s perception of \"those little planes\"

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I think we're just deluding ourselves by suggesting that GA flight, on average, is safer than automobile travel. You can say that it all depends on the pilot and how safe he/she makes it, but the averages speak for themselves.

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Well, there are a few things that make flying different than just driving a car. A lot of accidents in a car take place that are of the fender bender variety, where someone rear ends someone else at a stop light or something like that. In other words, they don't take place at fatal speeds.

Virtually every single accident that happens in aviation happens at a rate of speed that can kill you.

The cool thing about flying is that I don't have to worry too much about what the bozo two feet away in the next lane is going to do.
 
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