Can I be a safe pilot with just my PPL?

One of the safest pilots I knew was just a private pilot. Just keep learning and best the best you can be.
 
I think there needs also to be some separation between the idea of a safe pilot and a precise pilot. IFR training will make your more precise, and is a term that describes you ability to accurate and smoothly control the plane (granted hours will do this also). Do not confuse that term with safe. Extremely precise skilled pilots can still be unsafe if they make bad decisions. Being safe is much more of a mental game, and applying common sense. Also, becoming complacent can be a big issue. There is a reason that a pilot with around 250 hours is statistically the most dangerous. They have been doing it long enough that they become lazy and complacent because they are too comfortable and overconfident.

So from a gaining hours and practicing standpoint IFR training makes you safer, but nothing would stop you from improving from just going out there and flying with you PPL. Both potentially make you safer.

Remember what many people have said to me.

Your PPL is a license to learn.
Your IFR is a license to kill yourself.
 
I don't think precision is unimportant, but I think judgment and good decision making are far more important.
 
steingar said:
Takes a special snowflake to argue against success.
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What is the data that you as a snowflake is safe? None was presented and you haven't proven being a success at being safe. Takeoffs = landings does not equate to being a safe pilot. Flying on a clear and a million day with no wind does not mean you are safe.
 
KA550 said:
What is the data that you as a snowflake is safe? None was presented and you haven't proven being a success at being safe. Takeoffs = landings does not equate to being a safe pilot. Flying on a clear and a million day with no wind does not mean you are safe.
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Pmfji, but how do you define "safe"?
 
I live in Arizona. I only have 10 hrs of actual and of that 10, less than 1 hr is in single engine piston. You'll be fine.
 
KA550 said:
What is the data that you as a snowflake is safe? None was presented and you haven't proven being a success at being safe. Takeoffs = landings does not equate to being a safe pilot. Flying on a clear and a million day with no wind does not mean you are safe.
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:popcorn:
 
geneseib said:
I've been flying with only a PPL for 39 years. I've been safe and I've been unsafe.
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I have been admittedly unsafe by accident. The things I didn't know I didn't know. A pilot who never hits this is in my opinion an unsafe pilot, since he or she is forever flying the same flight and not expanding their horizons.
 
You may actually be safer NOT holding even altitudes. More likely to be another plane there.
 
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