In a previous article, said:
[Actually, I (Paul Tomblin) wrote this part:]
We'll probably never really know the true answers, until somebody
makes a long term comprehensive study of hours flown and types of
flying versus accidents across the whole fleet.

I'm personally skeptical of this figure. I think if one could extract the
*equivalent* operations from the production-aircraft accidents...e.g, only
aircraft that were personally owned and operated (homebuilt can't be rented,
etc.), I think the comparative figures would be closer to the fleet rate.

That's what I was getting at when I said somebody needs to make a study of
"hours flown and types of flying". Is it more dangerous or less dangerous
to be doing $100 hamburger runs in homebuilts versus production aircraft?
How about IFR? How about night winter IFR?

You've done a good job with the information available, but the information
that could help somebody make an informed decision as to whether the type
of flying that they do is more or less dangerous in home-builts just isn't
there.

Personally, I am inclined to believe for normal droning along to a
destination flying, they're going to end up the same. Except for that
horrible spike in accident rates within the first 30 hours of flying a
homebuilt - it's that (and the fact that I can't stand for hours at a
time in the workshop like I did when I made my canoes) that keeps me away
from homebuilts.

--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
"Why are we hiding from the police, mommy?"
"Because we use vi, dear, and they use emacs."