You fly? Why? You’re gonna crash and die!

MetalCloud

MetalCloud

Line Up and Wait
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MetalCloud
We all get those statements all the time. It’s been beat to death. And we ****in hate it.

But I just realized something ... I do it too.

My dad was paralyzed from a motorcycle accident. And to this day, any time someone I care about tells me they ride, I tell them to be careful because my dad yada yada yada.

So maybe next time it happens just realize that people do care about you and they’re just being protective.
 
MetalCloud said:
We all get those statements all the time. It’s been beat to death. And we ****in hate it.

But I just realized something ... I do it too.

My dad was paralyzed from a motorcycle accident. And to this day, any time someone I care about tells me they ride, I tell them to be careful because my dad yada yada yada.

So maybe next time it happens just realize that people do care about you and they’re just being protective.
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Nope. People who don’t know me from Adam, and who couldn’t care less about me, say the same things. They’d rather attribute the difference between your choice and theirs to foolishness on your part than to fear on their part.
 
I don’t get that statement all the time, or even occasionally, actually very rarely. YMMV
 
Don’t get it much here either. I hear it, and use to dish it out with regard to motorcyclists all the time.

Pilots get some credit for being skilled. Any ‘ol bloke can go out and ride a bike and the fact is, they are dangerous on public roads. Bikes, motorbikes, motorcycles, what ever.

But I catch myself from dishing on bikers because heck, it’s just another choice and it can be pursued with reasonable safety, just like flying.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
 
mscard88 said:
I don’t get that statement all the time, or even occasionally, actually very rarely. YMMV
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Neither do I. Although nobody wants to fly with me. So they probably all think I’m going to crash and die but don’t want to get in the way.

I think that many activities put us at risk. I try to take calculated risks to myself and minimal risks to others. But if you eliminate all the risks of premature death, your only accomplishment is to maximize your risk of dying of cancer or old age and having a very short obituary that nobody will bother to read because you outlived all of your more interesting friends and family.
 
Half Fast said:
Nope. People who don’t know me from Adam, and who couldn’t care less about me, say the same things. They’d rather attribute the difference between your choice and theirs to foolishness on your part than to fear on their part.
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And what that REALLY boils down to is them covering up the fact that they don't have the balls to do the things you do.

Bill Watson said:
Pilots get some credit for being skilled. Any ‘ol bloke can go out and ride a bike and the fact is, they are dangerous on public roads.
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While any ol' bloke can go out and buy a bike, it takes a lot of skill and experience to quickly ride mountain roads or dice with commuter traffic year after year without incident.
 
Flying, no I never hear that. Motorcycles, a little bit. Little bit meaning once in awhile I do hear from someone who thinks they're very dangerous.
 
Half Fast said:
Not often about flying, but certainly about motorcycles, auto racing, and cave diving.
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In fairness though, the cave diving will likely kill you. The others probably just paralyze you a little.
 
You ride a bicycle. You are going to die at the same rate that GA pilots die
 
PPC1052 said:
In fairness though, the cave diving will likely kill you. The others probably just paralyze you a little.
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No, a bends hit is more likely than death. Cave dives often require staged decompression.

BUT, the truth is that trained cave divers have a better safety record in caves than trained open water divers do in open water. Most cave drownings occur when OW divers, without cave training and equipment, go into a cave. Those hit the newspapers, and reporters don't always draw the distinction in training.
 
Although I feel that parachutists are nuts, I would never tell them that...their choice.
 
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Half Fast said:
No, a bends hit is more likely than death. Cave dives often require staged decompression.

BUT, the truth is that trained cave divers have a better safety record in caves than trained open water divers do in open water. Most cave drownings occur when OW divers, without cave training and equipment, go into a cave. Those hit the newspapers, and reporters don't always draw the distinction in training.
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Scuba is much more dangerous than most flying. Yes, I do both.
 
My neighbor has been in a wheelchair since an auto accident 30+ years ago, his brother was driving. A guy fell off a roof up North a few weeks ago, likely never walk again. I’ve known a few who fell out of deerstands. Then there was the guy up in a tree with a chainsaw who fell. Stuff happens, be careful.


I guess we could all just sit on the couch with the IPad, sounds safe enough.
 
MetalCloud said:
We all get those statements all the time. It’s been beat to death. And we ****in hate it.

But I just realized something ... I do it too.

My dad was paralyzed from a motorcycle accident. And to this day, any time someone I care about tells me they ride, I tell them to be careful because my dad yada yada yada.

So maybe next time it happens just realize that people do care about you and they’re just being protective.
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The big difference is that in airplanes much more so than in cars or on a motorcycle, you are the master of your fate. In a car you could be driving at a reasonable speed, following all the traffic laws, sober, alert, attentive, in a well-maintained vehicle, and get hit by a drunk or some kid texting runs a stop sign and cream you. On a motorcycle it's even worse. In a plane, if something goes wrong, there's a 9 in 10 chance it was your fault. It's not a reasonable comparison at all.
 
tawood said:
Although I feel that parachutist are nuts, I would never tell them that...their choice.
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I did skydiving for 10 years and I'm now pursuing my PPL and wife is ok. Then I told her I wanted to start riding and she was like "No, not motorcycles, we draw the line here." ;-)
 
mryan75 said:
The big difference is that in airplanes much more so than in cars or on a motorcycle, you are the master of your fate. In a car you could be driving at a reasonable speed, following all the traffic laws, sober, alert, attentive, in a well-maintained vehicle, and get hit by a drunk or some kid texting runs a stop sign and cream you. On a motorcycle it's even worse. In a plane, if something goes wrong, there's a 9 in 10 chance it was your fault. It's not a reasonable comparison at all.
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Really solid point.

I actually haven’t heard the “beware!” statements from folks in a while. But I just realized yesterday that I tell motorcycle riders to be careful... and felt like such a hypocrite!
 
ktup-flyer said:
The best things in life usually have the biggest risks... I’d rather have fun and chance it than sit on the couch and live a miserable life
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Exactly. I know some people where the biggest risk in their lives is sitting on the couch watching a footsball game.

I have thought I have lived a rather ordinary life. I have been writing my obituary, because my wife doesn't really know what I did before we were married, and she looks at it and is just amazed. She has really been asking questions and telling me I should have been more careful. I tell her that I have lived a normal life.

One time I flew a guy out that had broken his pelvis. 70 year old Native man. Broke it riding a bull in a jackpot rodeo...... complained the whole time.... "I coulda used that 500 bucks...."
 
MacFlier said:
I did skydiving for 10 years and I'm now pursuing my PPL and wife is ok. Then I told her I wanted to start riding and she was like "No, not motorcycles, we draw the line here." ;-)
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Yeah, my wife is the one who encouraged me to get my pilot license, and she enjoys flying with me. Motorcycles? Nope. And a weird nope for her was rock climbing, but I’m okay with that since I really have zero interest in that activity.

Nobody says anything about my flying, my coworkers are mildly interested when I tell them but that’s about it. The only “hobby” that I think is actually stupid is BASE jumping, or even worse those wing suit gliders skimming the rocks. What’s the fatality rate, like 10% I think I heard once.
 
My motto for motorcycles is "Fast and Loud". They can't kill you if they can't catch you.
 
alfadog said:
My motto for motorcycles is "Fast and Loud". They can't kill you if they can't catch you.
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But the car pulling out in front of you makes for a spectacular aerial show o_O
 
I get this occasionally, usually in a backhanded fashion, like, “oh you fly? That’s great, but I worry about your safety.”

I’m not usually bothered by it - people form opinions by their interpretation of what they read/hear/see. If the only time they hear about “little planes” is a crash on the evening news, they’ll be misinformed. My opportunity to tell them about all the good in GA.

What does get me angry though is people who pass judgement, especially openly. One friend said to my face that she wouldn’t let her kids stay overnight with my kids because I was “too risky, all that motorcycling and flying.” We aren’t friends anymore. So when people say “you’ll kill yourself”, what they’re saying, consciously or not, is, I’ve decided that you have poor decision-making and therefore poor character.

I try really hard to not pass judgement. There activities, political views, behaviors I don’t understand or agree with, but hey, tell me why you enjoy it, what’s exciting, how it’s good. Maybe I’ll learn something. Then you can stop talking so that I can talk about flying ;)
 
woodchucker said:
But the car pulling out in front of you makes for a spectacular aerial show o_O
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I was driving home from school one day and saw a car turn right in front of a guy on a Harley. He t-boned the car, smack dab in the middle. Saw him do 3 or 4 flips in the air. He was dead (I'm sure on impact) sprawled out on the asphalt. Right in front of my eyes...to this day one of the craziest things I have seen.

I grew up racing motocross - would have raced local pro before I went off to college. Basically grew up on a bike, but I don't have much interest in riding a street bike here in Phoenix. My dad has owned a motorcycle my whole life and still rides one to work quite often.
 
CC268 said:
I was driving home from school one day and saw a car turn right in front of a guy on a Harley. He t-boned the car, smack dab in the middle. Saw him do 3 or 4 flips in the air. He was dead (I'm sure on impact) sprawled out on the asphalt. Right in front of my eyes...to this day one of the craziest things I have seen.
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I was in Albuquerque last Tuesday. The road I was on was two lanes one way, and for some reason had a half lane dogleg shift to the left. Traffic was about 20 mph. Right at the dog leg some idiot on a bike tried to split the lane between the cars. He caught his left leg on the front bumper of the car on his left and caught his right leg on the rear bumper of the car on his right. He instantly hit the power which yanked the bike out from under him, dumping him on his face in the street while his bike took off about 100 feet before smashing into 2 parked cars.

This dummy immediately got up and blamed the two cars. A city cop saw the dummyless bike hit the cars and stopped to investigate. I tooted my horn and got his attention, and he came over. The rider immediately started a profanity filled tirade against the two drivers. But our poor dummy rider was not expecting the car on his left to have a dash cam that caught everything. After the cop saw the dash cam recording, he pulled out his ticket book and proceeded to explain exactly all he was going to ticket the dummy bike rider for, and not to forget the damage to the two parked cars. I was not needed so I continued on my way.

I did have to laugh at his stupidity to try to squeeze in between two cars at a point where the distance between the cars was decreasing.

The dummy did do one thing right. He had a helmet on. Destroyed his bike, but he was able to walk away.
 
When people find out I fly, they can't wait to tell me about someone they knew (or heard about) who died in a private airplane. When they find out I ride a motorcycle, they can't wait to tell me about someone who died on one.

You know who else gets this treatment? Pregnant women. People hear you're pregnant and can't wait to tell you about someone else's two-headed baby or some such.

At its root, it's just a way for the naysayer to make the conversation about himself.
 
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