Better drivers?

Chris W writes:

Given that I've seen no evidence that pilots on the whole are better at
avoiding crashes in airplanes than they otherwise would statistically be
expected to be, I see no reason to think they would be better drivers. That
is, if they can't even be better-than-average in flying than they'd be
expected to be, why would one expect them to be better-than-average in
anything else?

How on earth could the average person preform better than average? By
definition that is impossible.

I recall (but not so well that I can readily provide a reference) that
this is fairly common. I suppose it depends on your definition of
"average person."

For an extreme example, let's say that there are 100 GA pilots and only
one GA crash in a year. The average is .01 crashes/pilot, right? And
99% of the pilots have done better than that by not crashing, right?

Even if you want to use some definition of "average person" that results
in a partial crash per year, almost all of your pilots have done
"better-than-average" (as stated in the part you quoted).

(Yes, this is getting off of the flying/driving thread a bit.)

--kyler

Even if you want to use some definition of "average person" that results
in a partial crash per year, almost all of your pilots have done
"better-than-average" (as stated in the part you quoted).

Almost all of your pilots are not average pilots. The issue wasn't
"almost all" but "average".

Jose
--
The price of freedom is... well... freedom.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.