Malibu Midair

"Bill Denton" wrote in message ...
Have there been a disproportionate number of GA airplanes getting bent
lately or is it just a perception?

There was a rash of accidents in TX, possibly caused by several
pilot's lack of attention to high density altitude (it seems several
that I looked at news reports may have that as at least one cause).
When this is added into the normal "background noise" it might be what
you're thinking of.

As a sidenote on the perception of airplane accident frequency here's
something interesting: I searched news.google.com for "airplane
accident" and found 551 total reports. The first page of the reports
have dates ranging from 5 August to 18 hours ago.

Searching for 'car accident" results in 15,500 hits. The first page
reports cover from 12 August to 1 hour ago. Many more over a much
shorter period.

Apparently almost all the news reports of car accidents are local
only, and usually ignored since they're more or less expected.
Everyone knows someone who's been in at least one car accident or has
been in one themselves. But airplane accidents are much more likely
to be publicized nationwide. Most people's lack of familiarity and
the wide publicity causes the prevailing "small planes are dangerous"
attitude in the general public.

I'm familiar with the Nall report and the statistics, and the problems
of comparing car miles with airplane hours and the real comparison of
safety. I also know that the above Google search results are
statistically wrong since there are many many more cars and drivers
than there are planes and pilots. But, for making a perception in
people's minds it's relevant.

What I do know is that car accidents are more likely to be caused by
circumstances external to the driver, like other drivers. Airplane
accidents, omitting midairs like the Malibu case, are more likely to
be caused by a pilot's own issues. Before I started taking lessons I
read around 2 years of NSTB reports for TX and VA. I decided that
around 2/3 of all accidents were either caused or contributed to by
one of two things:

1) Attempting to fly without fuel (in a powered aircraft) or with junk
& water in the tanks.
2) Not taking weather into consideration, either flying into bad
weather or not dealing with density alt. or haze.

So, I check my fuel, and do my fuel use calculations. And I've become
a student of meterology.

-Malcolm Teas