"Gary Drescher" wrote:
Two significant causes
of fatals are weather and fuel exhaustion,
generally on long x-country trips.

Fuel management accounts for only 7.6% of pilot-caused fatal GA
accidents,
according to the 2004 Nall Report. Weather causes another 12.7%.
They're far
exceeded by takeoff/climb fatalities (16.5%), descent/approach
fatalities
(18.6%), and maneuvering fatalities (25.0%).


If those are overall stats, you're going to get different results
when you exclude accidents which are mechanically induced. That's
many of the climbout accidents, and often NTSB/FAA can't determine
if there was a partial power loss, where's there a fatal and
destroyed airframe. They just do thumb compression and mag spark
check, if possible, so it comes out pilot error. Ditto when on
final.

Maneuvering includes acro and circling low over your significant
other's house. Yes, currency can makes either safer, but we really
shouldn't do the latter.

Fred F.