Jay Honeck wrote:
Slightly off-topic, but does anyone know what the accident statistics
are for airshow performers? These guys are the ultimate thrill
seekers, and it seems that a fair number of them die each year...

Something like one out of 100 die each year. Airshow performance is
the most dangerous civilian flying there is. The problem is that
pleasure flying is second, ahead even of cropdusting.

The article is interesting, but does not match my experience. The
people I know who have had the highest ratio of accidents to hours
flown (really a much better measure than total accidents, don't you
agree?) were VERY focused on complying with rules and following
checklists. Both seemed to average something less than 300 hours
between accidents, managing to rack up 4 apiece without getting into 4
digits.

Of course that's rare. Most people I know who do have accidents only
have one, and the majority have none. One can happen to anyone, and
I'm tempted to dismiss one accident in thousands of hours of flying as
just par for the course.

Still, if I had to find the one big factor that most of the pilots I
know who had accidents had in common, and that was rare in the ones
that didn't, it would be this - almost half of those who had accidents
(including one of the two who managed 4) were aviation safety
counselors, and the vast majority of pilots I know are NOT safety
counselors. Even more damning, most of the aviation safety counselors
I know have had accidents without racking up thousands of hours.

Michael