Dear Michel

Over 90% of people who go into Old Peoples Homes die
there
Over 80% of people die in bed
Over 30% of people who go into hospital die

To live you need to avoid going into hospital, going
to bed or going into a home.
You are right older people do fly more they have more
time they are likely to have more accidents through
that factor alone. This argument is not likely to
be won by ageist ramblings.

Statistics are like lamposts, more for illumination
than leaning on.



At 16:48 04 May 2004, Michel Talon wrote:
Robert Ehrlich wrote:
Michel Talon wrote:

Jeff Dorwart wrote:


Let me mention an important factor here, the age of
the pilot.
I have constated on myself that as one ages, the field
of vision
becomes narrower, not to mention that attention is
not of the same
quality, reflexes become poor, etc. This could well
be one of the most
important factors at play here. Sooaring is much much
bettre fitted to
young people in excellent health and doing a lot of
sports (i mean
sports like squash) than to old people.


But mostly old people have the time and money for
gliding. In my
personal case, I am well aware of my declining capabilities,
but
I think the lot of free time I can (and do) devote
to gliding
compensates for that, i.e. if I had started gliding
betweeen
15 and 50, I would have been flying less than 50 hours
per
year (now over 200) and this factor overrides the
decline due
to age.

I don't think so. I remarked that a fair number of
people whom i
learnt killed themselves soaring, were 'well known
famous' pilots,
flying a lot, but getting older. And, yes, since the
soaring pilots
population is indeed getting older, thanks to the effect
you mention
(time and money), it could well be that the number
of accidents
augment, if this theory is true, of course.


--

Michel TALON