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.
Most accidents are pilot error, and pilots with a personal license do not typically have nearly as much training as a commercial pilot.
how much difference is it? It does seem like there are more accidents with personal flights than commercial flights
Check out https://pilotinstitute.com/aviation-accident-causes/ for some data. It’s significant.
Flying commercial is the safest way to travel, period. Flying GA is far from it.
AOPA also has a ton of data: https://www.aopa.org/training-and-safety/air-safety-institute/accident-analysis/richard-g-mcspadden-report/mcspadden report figure view?category=all&year=2021&condition=all&report=true