Jay Honeck writes:

And this is based on...what?

The relatively high risk of GA, compared to commercial airlines.

Flying light airplanes carries about the same risk as riding a
motorcycle, statistically.

Riding a motorcycle is pretty risky.

As with riding, when flying you can make things MUCH safer by taking a
few relatively easy steps.

Yes, but the insurance company cannot be sure that you will take those
steps. And many people obviously don't, whence the high accident
rates.

Or are you saying that rich people who use GA for transportation are,
to a large degree, doofuses, along the lines of the legendary
overworked Bonanza-pilot-doctors (thus the nick-name,
"Fork-Tailed-Doctor-Killer") who used to kill themselves with alarming
regularity?

No. Rich people aren't any less intelligent than poor people.
However, having money provides access to general aviation,
irrespective of intelligence, so stupid rich people are more able to
fly than stupid poor people. Thus, one may encounter lots of stupid,
rich pilots.

In case you didn't know, Bonanzas were the original Cirrus, meaning
that wealthy, busy, high-powered professionals often bought them, flew
them too little, but often under tight schedules. This occasionally
got them in deep doo-doo when they flew into conditions that exceeded
their limited skills under the reasoning that they "had" to make that
meeting.

And in so doing they skewed the safety statistics for general
aviation. People like Cory Lidle, John Denver, and John F. Kennedy,
Jr., are still doing that today.

Personally, I don't think GA flying is prohibitively dangerous, or I
certainly wouldn't have put my family in the plane over 600 times.
You've just got to be vigilant and careful at all times.

I agree. Take good care of your plane and good care of yourself, and
be careful and cautious even when it's inconvenient, and the risk of
flying will be very low indeed. Under such conditions I certainly
wouldn't hesitate to put my family in a plane. But careless pilots
flying ill-maintained aircraft are just asking for trouble.

I think one big part of it is that, in general aviation, you cannot
simply jump into the plane and fly whenever you wish ... not if you
want to be safe, at least. If the weather is unsuitable, or if
there's any problem with the aircraft, you have to wait. But some
people don't like to wait.

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