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.

  • Troy
    10•9 months ago

    Aviation incidents are lower than automotive incidents per person-mile. The standards by which pilots are trained far exceed the standards to which drivers are trained. And the vehicle maintenance standards are infinitely higher. Incidents do happen, and when they do, they become newsworthy (because the news loves a spectacle) and this creates a bias in perception of safety.

    Humans are notoriously bad at assessing risk using gut feeling, so don’t feel bad about feeling bad. But maybe take it as an opportunity to learn about their hobby. If you’re afraid of flying, see if you can join them in a simulator or training cockpit just to hang out and learn. The less magical it becomes, the more confident you’ll become that they’ll be safe.

  • @[email protected]
    4•9 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.

  • walden
    4•9 months ago

    They don’t (usually) hand out licenses to anyone who asks. You have to pass written, oral, and practical exams.

    Still, it depends a lot on the specific person. Are they dedicated to safety? Will they make good decisions even if it means a big inconvenience for them (not going to make it home that day because of weather, etc.)? Will they continue to learn as they continue to fly? See “TNFlyGirl” for a recent example of how having a pilot’s license does not make someone a good pilot.

    You know your friends and their personalities, so you’d be the best person to ask. Are your friends safe?

    • @agent_flounderEnglish
      3•9 months ago

      That was worth the dive down the rabbit hole. It sucks that this woman got herself and her dad killed. Watching the blancolirio videos about the crash where he played two of her recent videos, even to me who knows little, I feel she had no business flying without more instruction and far better instruction and a much greater fear of the consequences.

      It boggles my mind that she would try to use the autopilot when she thought it was broken, didn’t bother to learn more about it, and actually asked her non pilot dad to help her fly when she was struggling. That sounds categorically insane to me.

      It seems like she didn’t spend the time understanding her autopilot system. And from all the airplane disaster shows I’ve seen, quite a few catastrophes are due to poor understanding of aircraft functions.

      It also sounds like she didn’t have a firm grasp on the most fundamental aspects of aviation. Just from flying RC planes and doing a little reading I know that a plane with a high angle of attack that is losing airspeed and not climbing is in danger of an aerodynamic stall and needs power added or angle of attack reduced or both.

      Which all goes to say that, from what I can tell, anyone wanting to get into flying better be very serious about learning how to avoid common mistakes, prevent getting in over your head, and make sure you truly understand basics and how to fly the airplane. It seems it can be as safe or dangerous as you make it?

  • @agent_flounderEnglish
    4•9 months ago

    It may sound counterintuitive but you might get comfort watching Air Disasters. You will see some of the mistakes that have been made in commercial aviation in the past and what has been done to correct it. Some of the mistakes are caused by the pilot but not all. Sometimes a malfunction occurs but the pilots don’t react appropriately. There are several examples of incredible piloting that save lives as well so you can see what it means to properly handle a malfunction.

    That said you can look up statistics of car crashes vs general aviation (fly yourself) crashes. I don’t know but I suspect flying is safer. Commercial aviation is much, much safer.

    If I ever tried to get a license I would always want to keep in mind how dangerous it could be and do everything possible in my control to be as safe and capable as possible.

  • Shadow
    1•9 months ago

    Safer than a motorcycle, barely.

    People will say aviation is super safe. They should be saying commercial aviation is super safe.

    Most accidents are pilot error, and pilots with a personal license do not typically have nearly as much training as a commercial pilot.

    With a good instructor it’s a lot of fun though and I highly recommend.