Safety: Planes vs Bikes

I fly a small airplane (a Cessna 150) that is well maintained. I fly
over forests in good weather and typically during the day. My biggest
fear is the engine quits over the forest and I have no place to make a
deadstick landing except the tops of large trees.

I drive a moderate motorcycle (a Honda Nighthawk 750) at moderate
speeds through my small town and through the surrounding forests. My
biggest fears are either that I will slide on a patch of dirt on the
road and crash or someone will hit me with their car through
inattention.

I've been asked several times which of these things is more dangerous.
Can anyone provide some statistics on this?

-Thanks
-Charles Talleyrand

On 24 Aug 2006 16:52:30 -0700, "Charles Talleyrand"
wrote:

I fly a small airplane (a Cessna 150) that is well maintained. I fly
over forests in good weather and typically during the day. My biggest
fear is the engine quits over the forest and I have no place to make a
deadstick landing except the tops of large trees.

I drive a moderate motorcycle (a Honda Nighthawk 750) at moderate
speeds through my small town and through the surrounding forests. My
biggest fears are either that I will slide on a patch of dirt on the
road and crash or someone will hit me with their car through
inattention.

I've been asked several times which of these things is more dangerous.
Can anyone provide some statistics on this?

-Thanks
-Charles Talleyrand

I don't have the URL, but I just recently read an article on
this.

I recall that it said that flying a plane, especially a small
private one, definitely places you at greater risk of landing on the
top of a large tree in the middle of a forest, and riding a motorcycle
puts you in greater danger of sliding on dirt or getting in a car
accident.

HTH.


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"Charles Talleyrand" wrote in message
ups.com...
I fly a small airplane (a Cessna 150) that is well maintained. I fly
over forests in good weather and typically during the day. My biggest
fear is the engine quits over the forest and I have no place to make a
deadstick landing except the tops of large trees.

I drive a moderate motorcycle (a Honda Nighthawk 750) at moderate
speeds through my small town and through the surrounding forests. My
biggest fears are either that I will slide on a patch of dirt on the
road and crash or someone will hit me with their car through
inattention.

I've been asked several times which of these things is more dangerous.
Can anyone provide some statistics on this?

-Thanks
-Charles Talleyrand


Sorry, I don't have any stats. But when I started a new job and applied for
life insurance the form specifically asked if I flew in private airplanes,
raced motorcycles and a variety of other "dangerous" activities. I think
scuba diving was on the list also. The application did not ask about street
riding a motorcycle.

That tells me those activities will affect your life insurance premium.
Therefore I deduce that flying is more dangerous than riding.

Bryan

I've been asked several times which of these things is more dangerous.
Can anyone provide some statistics on this?

You can get any answer you want, and it will be correct, depending on
how you define "risk" and "danger" and "use" and such. Generally,
flying an airplane and riding a motorcycle have some different purposes
and some similar ones. That's the key. Let's say (for example) that
you do both for pure entertainment, and the benefit is x hours of joy.
Then you are interested in risk of {whatever} per hour. But if you do
both purely for transportation, then the benefit is "getting there".
The risk is per mile (since "there" doesn't move), but for flying, you
need to add the risk of {whatever} during your trip to the airport.

There are other reasons to engage in activities, and the key to getting
the right answer is to ask the right question - to actually identify the
issue in question. That is often harder than finding the answer.

Jose
--
The monkey turns the crank and thinks he's making the music.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

I fly a small airplane (a Cessna 150.....

I drive a moderate motorcycle ......
I've been asked several times which of these things is more dangerous.
Can anyone provide some statistics on this?

-Thanks
-Charles Talleyrand

Sorry, I don't have any stats. But when I started a new job and applied for
life insurance the form specifically asked if I flew in private airplanes..... The application did not ask about street
riding a motorcycle.

That tells me those activities will affect your life insurance premium.
Therefore I deduce that flying is more dangerous than riding.

Bryan

Reasonable deduction. But way back in the late 1940s, when I began
taking fly lessons, I was advised it would increase my life insurance
premiums.

Some time later, but still way back in the '40s, I was advised that
the company would no longer increase the premium for pilots.

My premium was not affected when I went to Navy flight training in
1949 or flew in the Marines for several years.

Half a century has passed since then, and I have never again been
asked if I fly, when taking out insurance.

Don't know about bike riding, I'm not brave enough to try that.

vince norris

In article . com,
"Charles Talleyrand" wrote:

[snip]
I've been asked several times which of these things is more dangerous.

Another way to approach the question/answer is to consider the residual
risk after taking appropriate steps to mitigate the risk. The hazards
associated with an engine failure in flight can be mitigated by several
steps - flying a twin, or doing the best available maintenance, etc. etc.
The hazards associated with taking a left turn on a bike can be mitigated
as well - even going so far as to only take right turns.

In the end, the most dangerous activity is the one with the most residual
risk. Although it might take considerably more effort, you can make flying
safer than other activities.

--
Bob Noel
Looking for a sig the
lawyers will hate

On 24 Aug 2006 16:52:30 -0700, "Charles Talleyrand"
wrote:

I fly a small airplane (a Cessna 150) that is well maintained. I fly
over forests in good weather and typically during the day. My biggest
fear is the engine quits over the forest and I have no place to make a
deadstick landing except the tops of large trees.

I drive a moderate motorcycle (a Honda Nighthawk 750) at moderate
speeds through my small town and through the surrounding forests. My
biggest fears are either that I will slide on a patch of dirt on the
road and crash or someone will hit me with their car through
inattention.

I've been asked several times which of these things is more dangerous.
Can anyone provide some statistics on this?

Per mile, per hour, per year? What kind of gear do you wear? We know
you do a BFR every other year; when was the last time you took the MSF
experienced rider course? How old are you?

Here's the NHTSA's "Recent Trends in Fatal Motorcycle Crashes: An
Update," from June of this year:

http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd...006/810606.pdf

And here's the 2005 Nall Report on General Aviation accidents.:

http://www.aopa.org/asf/publications/05nall.pdf

My guess is that personal factors even out and the risk for any one of
us is about the same.

And an awful lot of GA ;pilots are/have been bikers. I wish there
were statistics on how many.

Don

Another way to approach the question/answer is to consider the residual
risk after taking appropriate steps to mitigate the risk. The hazards
associated with an engine failure in flight can be mitigated by several
steps - flying a twin...

Careful, mitigating one risk breeds another. Sometimes the new risk is
easy to spot, sometimes not. But this is one of those things that makes
statistics like this very difficult to make meaningful.

Jos
--
The monkey turns the crank and thinks he's making the music.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

"vincent p. norris" wrote:

Half a century has passed since then, and I have never again been
asked if I fly, when taking out insurance.

Oh, they still ask.

--
Peter

Peter R. wrote:
"vincent p. norris" wrote:

Half a century has passed since then, and I have never again been
asked if I fly, when taking out insurance.

Oh, they still ask.


I dread the day when insurance becomes compulsory.