"Gerald Sylvester" wrote in message
news
I recently got my PPL and find that most people are scared sh*tless to
go up. One friend came along and was just blown away and had a ton
of fun. Just about everyone else is "oh my god, I am so scared
of airplanes." This weekend I was going to go with my CFI to celebrate
my passing my checkride in a brand new SR-20 and people are still
shaking in their boots scared to hell and simply will not go.

Is this me or is it just the general public?

Any ideas? I hope this doesn't sound stupid but just my impression the
since passing my checkride.

It's important to realize that your fearful friends may be right.
Recreational flying is more dangerous than any activity that most Americans
engage in (unless we count dietary and exercise habits as an "activity").
According to AOPA's Air Safety Foundation's 2002 Nall Report
(http://www.aopa.org/asf/publications/02nall.pdf), personal (non-business)
GA flying has an average rate of one fatality per 56,000 hours of flying.
At that rate, among people who do 100 hours per year of personal flying,
about 1 in 20 are killed within 25 years. To put that in perspective, for
40-year-olds with a life expectancy of 80 years, 6.3 hours of life are lost
for every hour flown. For 10-year-olds with the same life expectancy, 11
hours of life are lost for every hour flown.

Is it worth it? That's a personal decision; it depends in part on how
important flying is to someone. If it's very important, then taking the
risk might make sense. If it's not very important, then it might not make
much sense.

--Gary