Accident statistics then and now

[Mike53]

I came across these stat's and found them quit sobering.I got my private in 1970 and never realized how much things have improved since then.Do I consider myself an unsafe pilot because I learned to fly back then.
Absolutely not.I happened to have an instructor that loved instructing,as a matter of fact he is still instructing today .I have to admit coming out of my own personal environment with a great instructor I am a bit mystified as to why there were so many accidents back then.I'm sure it's a combination of many improvements in technology weather on your blackberry,GPS,etc.I question whether it's an improvement in instructors,as I have met a few whom I considered marginal today just as in 1970, you had great instructors and you had marginal ones,just filling their log books for the better job.Still for what ever reason it's good to see such great improvements in the accident rate.
http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/stats/safety.html Cheers,

Mike

[uteboy]

Well its great that flying aeroplanes is much safer. But why was there such a peak in flying hours in 1979? Cheap gas?

And why was there an average of about two fatalities for each fatal accident? Sounds like another vote for the Onex!

[Mike53]

Not sure why it peaked in 79 but what is alarming for GA is the fact that it has steadily declined since then to the level of 1966 hours flown.Not a trend I would like to see continue.It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if we are seen as an elite group because we become so small that user fees,closed airports,and more restrictions will be hard to fight.I got into flying because our neighbor was a glider pilot and he asked me at the ripe age of 14 if I wanted to go up.Not every kid will get hooked like I or yourselves did but if we as a group don't take them up GA will continue it's downward trend.Just my 2 bits :)

[Andy Walker]

1.3 fatalities per 100,000 hours flown? Looks like on average most of us would have to fly 10-30 lifetimes for our number to come up. And people say flying is dangerous! :lol:

[Andy Walker]

I think the reason fatalities are up is because overall hours flown per year per pilot have gone down due to the economy, cost of fuel, increased regulation making flying harder, etc. Hopefully at some point that trend will turn around or at least flatten. But in reality, the difference between 1 fatality per 100,000 and 1.5 per 100,000 hours, while a 50% increase in nominal numbers, is margin of reporting error close in terms of an individual pilot's risk.