"Nasir" wrote in message om...
I am sorry about the loss, but incidents like this make me feel a little bit
safer because I KNOW I am not going to do any stunts like that! Whenever
there is a small plane crash, my friends and family start questioning how
safe flying really is. This accident happened really close to where my
family lives

Now I can explain to them one potential reason for the crash was how a low
hour pilot was flying (on the RIGHT side) with a student pilot on the left
side on a WINDY day with winds NOT aligned to the runway, and that I was
unlikely to do anything risky like this in my flying.

Nasir,

I think your risk assessment does you credit, and I sympathize
with your desire to persuade your friends that flying is not as
unsafe as the accident rate would indicate.

But...I also think there's a natural human tendency to cultivate
feelings of safety or invulnerability, by assessing an accident
until we find a feature we can point to and say "*I* would never
do anything that dumb so *I*'d never...." (run out of fuel,
crash on a windy night, etc etc).

It's natural but unfortunate, because sometimes we'd learn
more by starting from the assumption that these were smart
people who intended to be careful, safe pilots and asking
"why would a smart pilot do something which sounds so dumb?"

It's kinda sad but often true that sometimes pilots are
most proficient, just after or just before their checkrides.
I know when I was a student, I sought out and flew in the
gnarliest wind conditions I could find. Now, with a young
child and limited time to fly which often involves taking
her with me, I don't get nearly as much practice in gnarly
winds. Conditions I would have tackled without a 2nd thought
just after my PPL, I would hesitate now w/ ~500 hrs *because
I know I am less proficient at them*.

Nevertheless it has happened and more than once that I have
set out to arrive at my destination during daylight, with
calm winds, and wound up landing at night with the windsock
pointing an accusing finger at the side of my plane. I've
set out planning an instrument approach in IMC and wound up
making one in night IMC, something I strongly wish to avoid
except as a training exercise.

So my questions a
*how did they wind up in that position?*
*why did they think this was something they could handle?*
*what choices did they have, once they took off?*
*how did they plan to choose?*
*did they choose, or did they fail to consider and make
choices? if the latter, why?*
*was it a proficiency accident, or was there a mechanical
failure involved? if the latter, is there a better way
to handle it?

Of course we may never know, but it can serve as a starting
point to assess flights where I wind up doing something I
didn't plan on.

All the above is a long winded way of saying, when I was
a new pilot, it comforted me that the principle cause of
accident was pilot error, and often "dumb" pilot errors
like running out of fuel. Now, having seen a couple
accident chains unfold next to me and having come to a
couple points where "there, but for the grace...went I"
it no longer comforts me.

Cheers,
Sydney