Captain Avgas
Well Known Member
I'm beginning to suspect that we as pilots are our own worst enemy. No sooner does one pilot thread about aircraft accidents die than another one promptly pops up to take its place. There seems to be no end of nervous-nellie pilots, presumably anxious about their own flying skills, trawling through NTSB reports looking for the latest deaths.
The FAA and the rest of the burgeoning bureaucratic safety "industry" loves this. It gives them further political ammunition to expand their operations and to tighten the screws even more.
In the UK the CAA "safety" stranglehold on the homebuilt category is so severe it prevents RV owners from flying IFR, flying at night, performing aerobatics...and from even flying over built-up areas.
Aircraft accidents attract public attention, not because there are so many of them but because there are so few of them...that's what makes them newsworthy. And the fewer there are, the more newsworthy they become. That's the Catch 22 of aviation.
There might be some merit in a reasoned statistical analysis of aircraft accident trends over time...but this maudlin preoccupation by some pilots to rake over every fatality via the internet is truly counterproductive.
The FAA and the rest of the burgeoning bureaucratic safety "industry" loves this. It gives them further political ammunition to expand their operations and to tighten the screws even more.
In the UK the CAA "safety" stranglehold on the homebuilt category is so severe it prevents RV owners from flying IFR, flying at night, performing aerobatics...and from even flying over built-up areas.
Aircraft accidents attract public attention, not because there are so many of them but because there are so few of them...that's what makes them newsworthy. And the fewer there are, the more newsworthy they become. That's the Catch 22 of aviation.
There might be some merit in a reasoned statistical analysis of aircraft accident trends over time...but this maudlin preoccupation by some pilots to rake over every fatality via the internet is truly counterproductive.