# General Aviation accidents **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 3, 2005, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-aviation-accidents/333929 "2005-12-03T19:01:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-aviation-accidents/333929/21 "2005-12-05T15:16:55Z")
Thanks for the info, **Xema**. Sounds like a book I’ll have to get. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-aviation-accidents/333929/22 "2005-12-05T15:50:13Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Thanks. I have flown about 20 times since, with varying degrees of nerves. Being over the middle of the Pacific didn’t thrill me, and nor did being over the Alps. Thankfully on the last flight I took, from the UK to Ireland a couple of weeks ago, I was relatively normal. Good. I realise that these things aren’t particularly logical, so giving you a talk about the chances of this and that happening isn’t going to be much use to you. I have no trouble up at 24,000’ but I dread standing on a ladder to check the oil levels after a flight. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-aviation-accidents/333929/23 "2005-12-05T19:12:41Z")
> [@1920s Style "Death Ray"](#): > > I have no trouble up at 24,000’ but I dread standing on a ladder to check the oil levels after a flight. Preach it brother… I can hang up-side down in an open cockpit but get me on a 10 foot ladder and I’m a real ‘white knuckle’ worker … if I can get a hand lose from holding on to do some actual work. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-aviation-accidents/333929/24 "2006-01-12T13:16:24Z")
> [@1920s Style "Death Ray"](#): > > Good. I realise that these things aren’t particularly logical, so giving you a talk about the chances of this and that happening isn’t going to be much use to you. Quick bump to say I seem to have lost my irrational fear. I just took two (very) long-hauls and two short-hauls, and experienced approximately two minutes of panic on the way to the airport, and that was that. The rest of the time I was fine. How odd. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-aviation-accidents/333929/25 "2006-01-12T16:36:17Z")
I hate flying, and have to travel alot for work. The ‘fear’ comes from feeling like a potential victim the whole time you sit there. Just a subtle vrmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm of the engines…just waiting to be interupted. To make everything more terrifying, in our ‘lets not dare to commit or communicate anything to the peons’ mentality, those in charge (attendants/flight crew) are TERRIBLE at communication. When I hit the mother of all potholes on the road, I know my stress will be wondering if I broke a strut. If the airplane hits the equivalent, we don’t know whether we lost half the fuesalage or whether the crew didn’t blink an eye. We look at the flight attendants for their reaction, but we’re thinking, “Hmm, her/his role is to keep everyone calm, so we could have lost the flight deck to a comet and she wouldn’t panic!” Yeah…no stress there! Flying is just great!!! Good grief…all those safe hours mean nothing when I don’t know what is going on! ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-aviation-accidents/333929/26 "2006-01-12T21:25:29Z")
I’m a flight instructor, so I spend a fair amount of time discussing risks associated with flying. But I feel the statistics are only a part of it. I tell people the stats, but then go on to say that one’s chances are greatly improved by being smart. When I’m the one flying, I feel extremely safe in the airplane. Way safer than driving. One of my aerobatics gurus who flies in airshows has seen his share of fatalities. He claims that far and away, most are caused by pilots doing things they shouldn’t be doing. Very often it involves showing off for someone. Another instructor I know has an interesting way of putting it. He draws a line down the middle of a piece of paper. On one side he writes “normal flight operations”, and on the other “potential danger”. He says it’s OK to cross the line into potential danger so long as one does it KNOWINGLY. The real danger, he feels, comes from when people cross the line without realizing it. So I teach my students to check themselves. When they feel out of their comfort zone, they should proceed very carefully. Accidents usually result from not one thing going wrong, but a chain of occurrences that culminate in an accident. The best thing to do is stop the chain. At my flight school we use the phrase, “This is stupid.” That comes from a colleague who flies on a medical helicopter, which can be dangerous work. Anyone on their crew can say “this is stupid” and the mission is aborted. I’ve done it twice myself in my own flying. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-aviation-accidents/333929/27 "2006-01-13T08:20:32Z")
> [@](#): > > When they feel out of their comfort zone, they should proceed very carefully. Accidents usually result from not one thing going wrong, but a chain of occurrences that culminate in an accident. The best thing to do is stop the chain. The number one reason pilots become old. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-aviation-accidents/333929/28 "2006-01-13T21:34:42Z")
> [@Mach Tuck](#): > > At my flight school we use the phrase, “This is stupid.” That comes from a colleague who flies on a medical helicopter, which can be dangerous work. Anyone on their crew can say “this is stupid” and the mission is aborted. I’ve done it twice myself in my own flying. Do tell… ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-aviation-accidents/333929/29 "2006-01-14T03:00:32Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Do tell… Well, these are pretty boring stories because… nothing happened. I broke the chain before anything bad could happen. The first time I was supposed to fly a two hour trip to see an old friend. We had a schedule and I wanted to stick to it. But wouldn’t you know it, fog rolled in. It was perfectly clear at an altitude of 100 feet, but below that it was nothing but cloud. And the airplane that day was not set up for instrument flight. So I sat around waiting for a break in the murk. I figured I would quickly climb above it and cruise to my destination. By the time I got there, it would have burned off. After an hour or so I finally saw a small break opening up. I fired up the plane and taxied out. Sitting on the departure end of the runway, I looked at the tiny hole in the fog, and suddenly realized what I was propsing to do: 1. Take off in a VFR-only airplane… 2. for a flight over an area of fog stretching more than 100 miles… 3. Through a dubious hole that could close up the moment I entered it, and obscure the trees at the end of the runway. That was when I heard my friend’s voice in my head saying, “This is stupid…” I taxied back and shut it down. An hour later the fog burned off for real, and I made the trip. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-aviation-accidents/333929.md?page=1)