Expert: D. Norkus - 12/12/2007

Question
Hi, I"m a single mother of 3 young children, also an artist age 40 who just
recently fell in love with flying. I've only 7 or so hours in a Cessna 152 and I
ADORE it. My family (parents) are really worried about the safety of flying in
small aircraft and are bugging me to quit. Of course I don't want to leave behind
my 3 kids, do you have any stats about how safe it is to fly in Cessnas& or stats
about safety at the beginning level for fliers like me?

Answer
Lise

Check out "Is it Safe?" by GA Serving America:
http://www.gaservingamerica.org/Is_it_Safe.htm

There is a wealth of info you can use there to educate your parents and even yourself. Your parents may be up in arms over their perceived 'safety' of your situation because they don't really understand aviation. A segment of the population truly believes that GA is unsafe because of what they see on television- which is often incorrect in the details or downright in error. (Remember, with TV news drama and death & destruction mean ratings.) Being baby-boomer age, your parents also lived through times when GA had some less than stellar safety years. This may color their perception too. However, that has changed dramatically. From the GA Serving America website: "Since 1950, the accident rate per flying hour has been cut by more than 86 percent, even while the amount of GA flying has skyrocketed because of its critical role in our nation's economy and lifestyle."

Additionally, you can find safety statistics from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Air Safety Foundations "Nall Report". (If you want lots of figures, this is where you will find them!) They put out an annual summary of general aviation incident and accident statistics and more importantly dissect the root causes. I can tell you that very, very few have anything to do with the aircraft being unsafe.

Get the most recent Nall Report here-
http://www.aopa.org/asf/publications/06nall.pdf

I also suggest giving AOPA a call. (As a student pilot you should join too.) They are always willing to help and may even have a brochure with guidelines and facts for people in
your situation to talk to family members that have aviation safety.

A great thing AOPA does is gives free 6 month trials to Flight Training magazine. It is like a flight instructor in your mailbox every month. Get yours here-
http://flighttraining.aopa.org

As a woman who is a student pilot I think you should also join the Int'l Organization of Women Pilots, aka the "Ninety-Nines". They would be a great source of support and mentoring. They also give flight training scholarships, which would surely be of great help to a single mom.

Here is their homepage- http://www.ninety-nines.org


Hope this helps
Dorothy