I guess the problem with statistical measures is that glider pilots are a
fairly small population so that it is difficult to judge the reality of the
risk to an individual- maybe a statistician could help!

I have been flying for just under 40 years and I guess I know a few hundred
pilots by name. In that time two people I know personally have had to jump
(with 'chutes!) and survived - one mid air, one structural failure. One
person I know was struck by lightning and landed (his LS4 was a write-off)
and another good friend was killed in a mid-air where he was too injured to
jump.

When I started flying we did'nt bother with chutes for instructional
flying, now they are always used, partly I suspect as the modern 'glass
two seaters have seats which work better when you are wearing a parachute.


So I guess comes down to how you assess the risks and what the downsides
are.

(PS I also ride horses and drive motorcycles - both more dangerous IMHO
than flying !

At 11:09 18 March 2015, Bruce Hoult wrote:

It is even safer to stay on the ground.

But marginal increases in safety do not automatically trump all other
facto=
rs such as convenience, cost, excitement, and the satisfaction of
mastering=
skills. They have to be weighed up carefully, bearing in mind that no
matt=
er how careful we are we won't be here more than about 80 years on
average
=
.... and never more than about 110.

I've been a member of the same gliding club for 29 years now. It has
genera=
lly had 80 - 100 members. During that time no one has died flying a
glider.=
I'm pretty sure no one has used their parachute either. Several gliders
ha=
ve been written off, and one guy broke his ankle or lower leg. About 10 -
1=
5 of our members regularly take part in competition flying, and a number
of=
them have been national champion in various classes or undertaken record
a=
ttempts (some of them with Steve Fossett, who also didn't die in a
glider).

Certainly there is danger, but it's not like, say, motorcycling or
bicyclin=
g. I've lost a number of friends in both those.