My dad was a life insurance salesman and the only question he was required to ask about hobbies was; Do you fly a small plane or do you scuba dive? It may be that, like flying a plane, scuba diving is safe... if you do it correctly, in good weather and with properly maintained equipment, etc., etc. But, apparently, a lot of people don’t do it correctly.


I linked to an article that said flying is both 20 times more dangerous than driving and six times safer, depending on how you do the math. I simply pointed out that a small plane would have to fly at 3000 mph for that to be true, but I didn’t actually say if I thought flying was safer or more dangerous than driving. 


I’m guessing that, like scuba divers, a lot of amateur pilots think they’re really smart and unbiased, and that they would never overestimate their own abilities or enter into unsafe situations. But, like the rest of us, it seems a lot of pilots simply lie to themselves and rationalize the unsafe things they do.

Labels: moderation: safe