ET wrote:
wrote in

Individually, yes. As a population, no. Why does every insurance
company give discounts for IR? Why do they effectively require it for
higher-performance planes? It sometimes seems to me that the only
people suggesting the IR doesn't significantly increase safety are
unrated pilots.

Insurance companies look at statistics. All they actually see is that
as a group, people who have a IR have less accidents, that doesn't
automatically mean every pilot would be safer with an IR.


All generalizations will fail on an individual level at some time. That
doesn't make them generally invalid. A pilot who obtains his instrument
rating to become a safer pilot is making a wise decision. An instrument
pilot who thinks himself invulnerable tempts the wrath of the gods.

-cwk.