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How safe is it to be your own pilot? (self.aviation)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by Pat12 to c/[email protected]

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I have a few friends who have their own pilots license (private pilot i assume). How safe is it to fly your own plane?

I have acrophobia so learning how to fly is not high on my list but would like to know about how safe it is to assuage some fears. To be it seems scary because if something goes wrong, you wouldn't be the only person getting hurt (as would be the case for scuba diving or skiing) but you might also risk hurtings others like your plane crashing out of control.

edit: i'm asking on the off chance i feel like one day getting a private pilots license like my friends. i'm not planning on flying with the friends anytime soon; they live on the other side of the world.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

This all assumes US/FAA.

This is surprisingly hard to quantify. The commonly repeated statistic is that general aviation is about as safe as riding a motorcycle.

One of the huge emphasis areas these days is called Aeronautical Decision Making - which is essentially making good, safe decisions. You’ll start learning that (or should at least) day one when you look at the weather and make the decision “is it safe to fly today or not”.

If you’re interested in this stuff give yourself the gift of an “intro flight”. Most schools will offer them. You’ll be in the left seat with an instructor in the right seat. You’ll get maybe 30, 45 min flying around to get a feel for flying a small plane in the general aviation world. There is no commitment but be careful because there really is nothing else like it.

And funny enough - there are a bunch of pilots afraid of heights but have no problems flying.