On Sun, 14 Sep 2003 20:36:13 -0400, David Megginson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> Arnt Karlsen writes: > > > > To take a different example, if I could show that more people die > > > every year from falling off chairs than from high-altitude > > > mountain climbing without oxygen, would that prove that sitting > > > on a chair is more dangerous? > > > > ..reminds me of the safest mode of human transportation counting > > passenger mileage: babies crawling on the floor is a close 2'nd, > > _despite_ the Hindenburg. ;-) > > Even though this is off-topic, I'll continue just a bit further with > some fun but totally unconfirmed numbers I've heard, since they're > probably of general interest. > > First, while flying on a scheduled air carrier is much safer than > driving per passenger mile, flying with a private pilot is seven times > more dangerous than driving -- in other words, it's roughly comparable > to riding a motorcycle. ..huh? Considering the risks involved in pushing a system made for man-and-horse traffic into todays roads, with _all_ that _wide_ open space up there? > Gender equality does not rule in private flying. While a male driver > is only about twice as likely as a female driver to get into a fatal > car accident, a male private pilot is eight times more likely as a > female private pilot to get into a fatal plane accident. That > suggests that you're safer per mile flying in a small plane with a > female private pilot than you are driving in a car with a man. ..that, I can believe. > It also suggests that flying accidents are much more under the pilot's > control than driving accidents, since the gender gap is so much > larger. ..the ladies tend to close that gap on the seriousness on themselves, the tend to get more seriously hurt _when_ they get hurt, the belief is the females are less selfish and more caring about other people. > Some day I'll do the proper research to see if the numbers I've heard > are accurate. We know that it's young male drivers who cause the most > car accidents, but many private pilots are older, so it's unlikely > just to be the young-buck thing. My guess is that (on average) men > just have a harder time admitting they're wrong than women do. Fatal > plane accidents can happen gradually, as the result of a long chain of > bad decisions and other problems -- there are often many points where > the pilot could have saved him or herself by turning back, waiting a > couple of hours for better weather, choosing a different altitude or > route, making an extra fuel stop, etc. Maybe women as a group are > just better at doing that kind of thing. ..yeah, I learned to respect those snowed over triangular signs in Sweden, a _vastly_ different traffic culture, tradition and policy from Norway. On entering Sweden, I was lulled into the belief "Bah, they're paranoid.", as "nothing ever happened" on the signs I saw and read and not. So I the 900 hour driver, _relaxed_. ;-) ..ever seen those rally cross drivers do turns on TV? Mix in the Quake-III feeling and you appreciate how I got past that snow clearing truck that took up 3/4 of that wee railroad crossing bridge I was _kicked_ over. ..the second time was easy, the road just fell off down to the left, where some Swedes filled up the bend trying to help another idiot: "hummm, lessee, braking was useless, climb up the bank, bleed off the speed, then drop back down.". My GF was _not_ amused. ;-) ..we do support emergency landings outside runways? -- ..med vennlig hilsen = with Kind Regards from Arnt... ;-) ...with a number of polar bear hunters in his ancestry... Scenarios always come in sets of three: best case, worst case, and just in case. _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
