I am in The Killing Zone

Michael wrote:

And probably 80% of pilots, too. Look around the airport. Ask people
you know (CFI's excluded - I'll get to them later) how many hours they
have. Betcha 4 out of 5 will have between 50 and 350.

At a MAPA meeting recently (there's another this week in northern NJ; see
midatlanticpilots.com), a speaker was discussing this issue and asked who
was in "the zone". There were probably 50 or 60 people there, and only two
hands were raised. And I was one, and am now out of the zone.

[...]
The numbers that you're citing are pretty meaningless unless you know
the experience level distribution of the active pilots. The entire
killing zone conjecture is more than likely just bad statistics.

I tend to agree that this is most likely, but I've not read the original
claim.

- Andrew

asked who
was in "the zone". There were probably 50 or 60 people there, and only two
hands were raised.

Maybe low-time pilots are too interested in flying to be seminaring
about it?

(I've never been to a seminar or meeting about flying, though I have
been to a couple of air shows and fly-ins.)

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put Cubdriver in subject line)

The Warbird's Forum www.warbirdforum.com
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Cub Driver wrote:


asked who
was in "the zone". There were probably 50 or 60 people there, and only
two hands were raised.

Maybe low-time pilots are too interested in flying to be seminaring
about it?

MAPA meetings aren't really seminars. They're opportunities to dine with a
bunch of fellow aviators. However, just for fun, there's usually a speaker
or three to whom we pay some attention.

MAPA does run seminars, but these are different (ie. the food isn't as good
{8^).

It's been only relatively recently that I've become "socially" involved with
aviation like this. It definitely adds to the experience.

At to the number of low time pilots that dine with us...perhaps we don't do
enough to get the word out. I suppose one solution would be to mention the
organization, and our meetings in northern NJ every month, in a USENET
posting.

I could also mention the organization's URL:

http://midatlanticpilots.com/

Those would probably be good ideas.

- Andrew

snipped...

There's a sharp drop in the number of pilots, too. After 350 hours,
most pilots either go pro, or quit. Going pro at that point generally
means doing the CFI thing - getting into the right seat of a trainer
and going around the pattern. It's pretty hard to get hurt if you
never do anything.

The numbers that you're citing are pretty meaningless unless you know
the experience level distribution of the active pilots. The entire
killing zone conjecture is more than likely just bad statistics.

snipped...

I think you're right, the numbers probably are technically
meaningless. I read book and and I think that, even though it may be
statisically flawed, it offers a mindset that is valuable to the
low-time pilot. There are good lessons there, even though one of them
may not be a lesson in how to do statistical analysis.

Rich Russell