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My father was a pilot, his brother a flight instructor, and I learned to fly a plane before I could drive a car - (no teke-offs & landings tho). Two of my sons are pilots, one a Navy pilot, and his wife is a Marine pilot.

I feel safer in a plane than on the road where so many 30 and under are texting while driving.

Especially commercial. Trust me. Commercial pilots are almost 100% extremely careful and not risk-takers.

Yes, most crashes are human error - because humans are not perfect. When you examine total flight hours to crashes, even light planes are safe. Mechanical problems do occur, but are rare and most do not result in death.

“Yes, most crashes are human error”

The golf course is Southwest of the approach end of 11 at TRK. If he was over there he probably overshot the turn to final on the circle to land approach that he was cleared for and made a basic mistake: accelerated stall low to the ground to try to get back to the runway centerline.

There were only 3 people on board an airplane that requires two pilots. So the 1 pax was probably not someone who would feel bad about a little edgy flying. The pilot would probably not have selected the circle to land approach with a full airplane, and may have elected to go to RNO or fly the missed approach for a second try.

The audio and ground track show a pilot flying who is confident and capable. Looks like he just overdid it on an approach that is always the most risky.

My brother Scott was the maintenance director for a company called the Washington Corporation in Missoula, Montana that had a fleet of Gulfstream jets back in the 1990's. During his tenure there, he took advantage of accruing any flight time he could as a co-pilot whenever the jets had to be flown to locations for major maintenance in order to become a licensed professional pilot. He even made the December 1992 cover of a trade magazine called "Professional Pilot".

I don't know what his pilot's status was but back around 2000 or 2001 he left the company and struck out on his own to pursue his dream of flying.

The last conversation via letter I had with him was that he interviewed with the flight department of a company in Canada I think that was in need of a co-pilot and when he went for a flight with their chief pilot, apparently that guy was an unsafe yahoo and as a result, Scott turned down the job.

Shortly after that, the pilot of his old employer contacted him in need of a co-pilot to fly the owner of the company to Palm Springs, CA.

Scott accepted and while on layover there he rented a car to do some sight seeing. Unfortunately he was killed driving thru an intersection when a 19 year old Hispanic kid named Cruz Alejandro Martinez, high on drugs and alcohol, ran the red light and smashed into Scott's car..........

Don't mean to get off topic but I needed to say it, there is no question in my mind that Cruz Alejandro Martinez was an illegal alien living in California. I know he spent four years in prison and where he went afterwards, I have no idea tho I've spent countless hours and days trying to locate him.....