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My experience of the number of friends and aquaintences
killed in gliding accidents, compared to those lost in road accidents, matches every one else's comments. However it is worth remembering that whilst I will almost certainly hear about anyone I have ever known being killed in a glider, a road fatality to someone I knew but didn't see regularly, may well never be reported to me, so my perception that more people that I know are killed in gliders than on the road may not be entirely accurate. Having said that I am, however, convinced that on a fatalaties to hours ratio, flying gliders is much more dangerous than driving. At 23:48 11 June 2005, Bob Whelan wrote: ... Eric Greenwell wrote... Stewart Kissel wrote: One thing that has always bothered me with comparing the fatality rate of autos to gliders is....with autos, you got a pretty good chance of getting killed by another driver. In gliders, you are almost always responsible for your own death. So I am not sure how valid the accident comparison rate is between the two. My interpretation is this: I've known (met, flown with, talked to, corresponded with, not just heard their name) ten or more glider pilots killed in glider accidents, but none that were killed in a car accident on their way to or from the airport; for that matter, I can think of only one pilot I knew that was killed in a car accident anywhere. For the record, my take is this. Anytime you go faster than you're willing to hit a brick wall, or higher than you're willing to fall, you're opting for life-threatening risks. For me, driving obviously qualifies as the former, and arguably as the latter if I manage to go off a bridge or the side of a mountain/mesa. Soaring obviously qualifies as both each time I do it. Consequently each time I indulge in either I try to maintain an active awareness that each activity involves energies high enough to easily kill me. Personally, driving makes me more uneasy than soaring for the reason Stewart noted: many of the actively-life-threatening risks are beyond my direct control. Yet paradoxically, my driving-/soaring-acquaintan ce 'death stats' mirror Eric's (and Bruno Gantenbrink's) experiences. Arguing about (as distinct from discussing) 'which activity is safer' strikes me as an exercise in futility, because one can 'prove' whatever they want and thus it's an unending argument (well, at least until I die, ha ha). Acting with constant awareness that each activity contains immediate potential to suddenly kill me, combined with training, continuing education and good judgement is the best I can do. I've difficulty imagining living life without indulging in either activity, so that's how I attempt to control the risks of both (and any other activity I must - or choose to - indulge in). Makes sense to me! Weenily, Bob - still has all his fingers - Whelan |
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