[GoldCountryRedneck]

"...piloting a plane is probably a hell of a lot safer than driving...."

Absolutely correct. Fatalities for 2005:

Per D.O.T - Motor Vehicles = 37,594

Per N.T.S.B - General Aviation = 321

I'm personally feel more at risk driving to the airport where I fly!

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Fatalities for 2005:

Per D.O.T - Motor Vehicles = 37,594

Per N.T.S.B - General Aviation = 321

Faulty data. At least, incomplete.

How do these statistics look when you consider how many cars are on the road in any given 24 hour period versus the number of private small aircraft that are in the air for the same 24 hour period?

[Mamzelle]

How about deaths compared to hours actually spent *operating* said vehicle? Quite a few more people drive than fly. Although I know several hobby pilots--none of them fly anywhere as many hours as they drive.

I hate to think about how many hours I've spent driving a car over a lifetime. In the past two or three months, I've been road-bound over a hundred hours. Per year--several hundred to a thousand. I'm not going to tell you how old I am, but I've managed many thousands of hours with neither accident or fatality, thank the Lord.

Hobby pilots are just scairt that their prerogatives might get challenged, like being able to tour a populous downtown at lower altitudes. Wouldn't want to take the fun out of the hobby.

As affluence spreads, more and more are able to indulge the "dream" they have of soaring ascendent.