In article ,
"Montblack" wrote:

("Ron Garret" wrote)
Actually, this is not just Cirrus, but any high performance aircraft.

Actually, it's not even just aircraft. Studies have shown that antilock
breaks don't decrease the accident rate in cars because drivers drive
faster in worse conditions thinking that the ABS will keep them out of
trouble.


Car and Driver Magazine -The Steering Column:

The greatest advance in safety since seatbelts.
BY CSABA CSERE
February 2005

http://www.caranddriver.com/idealbb/...?topicID=60884

(From the linked article)
Two recent traffic-safety studies have thrown all of us in the auto whirl
for a loop. Last September, the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety released
independent studies showing that electronic stability-control (ESC) systems,
which help drivers maintain control when their vehicles start to slide, have
a profoundly positive effect on the frequency and severity of single-vehicle
accidents.


Interesting. This prompted me to look into this more, and I found this:

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/1944/#ABS

So it seems that it's not clear cut even for ABS.

As for overall accident rates for GA vs driving, it's true that looking
at the raw numbers GA is more dangerous (~1 fatality per 100,000 flight
hours (http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/newsite.../04-1-144.html) vs 1
fatality per 100 million passenger miles
(http://www.lightrailnow.org/facts/fa_00015.htm)). It's a little tricky
converting from flight hours to passenger miles because you have to
assume a lot about occupancy rates and vehicle speeds, but no matter how
you slice it there are no reasonable assumptions that lead to GA being
safer overall than driving. (But you can slice the numbers in lots of
really bizarre ways, e.g.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1084316012962)

I still have to wonder, though, if this would still be the case if you
ignored accidents that were caused by the pilot doing something stupid,
like launching into hideous weather without adequate preparation or
enough fuel. Unfortunately, the NTSB reports don't break the statistics
down into stupid and non-stupid.

rg