Gliding is a Risk Sport, as are Motor Racing and Rallying,
Downhill Skiing, Motor Cycling and Mountaineering (all
of which I have tried at some point in my life). The
point is how you manage the risk and how rewarding
you find the activity! Gliding can be as safe or as
dangerous as you want to make it, with low level cross-countries
and mountain flying being riskier than high level local
soaring.

If you fly as your instructor taught you, don't fly
into impossible situations, and above all keep a good
look out for other aircraft, your risks of sudden death
are greatly reduced.

All human activities, driving, crossing the road, etc.,
carry some small degree of risk. Gliding is actually
statistically considerably safer than Horse Riding,
which does not generally seem to be regarded as risky.


Del C

At 01:06 03 November 2007, Danlj wrote:
On Oct 31, 7:41 pm, Bob Kuykendall wrote:
...clip...

Observe that the numbers for gliders are 19.45 accidents
per 100,000
hours flown, with 5.07 fatal accidents per 100,000
hours. That's
second only to amateur-built aircraft, with 21.6 and
5.5 respectively.

Contrast that with the numbers for single-engine piston-powered
airplanes with 7.91 accidents and 1.41 fatal accidents
per 100,000
hours. In 2003 at least, gliders had 245% more accidents
and 360% more
fatal accidents per hour than the puddle-jumpers that
comprise the
majority of the US general aviation fleet
....clip...

As concerns comparisons between the accident rates
of flying and
driving, I defer to this analysis by Harry Mantakos:
http://www.meretrix.com/~harry/flyin...vsdriving.html

Given those numbers, I normally feel fairly confident
when I say that
soaring is much more dangerous than driving, and is
perhaps comparable
to riding a motorcycle. ...clip...

The fatalities-per-hoiur statistics in soaring were
presented at SSA a
couple of years ago, and Judge McWhorter, sitting next
to me, compared
it to the fatality rate in coal mining, a famously
risky occupation.
Judge quickly calculated in his head that soaring has
about a five-
fold greater fatality rate per hour than coal miners.

But he's a mining-safety expert; his next point was
not that coal
mining is too dangerous, or that soaring is too dangerous,
but that
formal safety practices, taught and followed with discipline,
reduce
the fatality experience rate tremendously in coal mining,
and would in
soaring also.

The key to devising safety practices is understanding
the behavior and
circumstances that increase the incidence of deadly
accidents (we call
them 'accidents' because the participants had no intention
of having
them).

The key to making safety practices effective is to
follow them with
discipline and understanding.

Now, the caveat is that we can ultimately control only
our own
behavior; we merely influence others, which is not
the same thing. So
we then need to understand also to what extent we are
at risk from
others' foolishness or ignorance, or from uncontrollable
factors.

In this regard, a colleague stopped riding motorcycle
completely,
during college, when he discovered a statistic that
said that 2/3 of
motorcycle accidents are due to autos turning left
in front of the
motorcycle. Most of the risk was beyond his control,
and he wanted to
matriculate through medical school with intact brain
and spinal cord.

Another factor is tolerable risk. Several posters
have alluded to
this: a single parent with small children will have
little tolerance
for personal risk, for the sake of the children. Others
have more
room. I'm not here to deride either.

And fear itself is an very aversive emotion. Whether
or not the fear
is rational, it's real, and it's distracting. One
sensible response
to fear is withdrawal from the situation. If this
means to stop
soaring, so be it, for that person. For others, it
stimulates
additional study or training, or a change in location
or practices.
So be it.

Thanks for listening.

DJ