On Fri, 17 Mar 2006 23:30:20 GMT, "City Dweller"
wrote in ::

http://www.pe.com/ap_news/California...229286CA.shtml


Journalist Pearson's article seems to be questioning the wisdom of the
lack of medical certificate requirement in the new Sport Pilot
designation in light of Associated Press' research that they claim
shows a disproportionate number of accidents among older pilots:

Following a rash of plane crashes involving older pilots in
Southern California, The Associated Press analyzed five years of
federal pilot licensing documents and aviation crash data. The
analysis showed that pilots in older age groups were in a
significantly higher percentage of crashes than they represented
among all pilots.

Implicit in Mr. Pearson's article is the premise that the underling
cause of the alleged disproportionate number of accidents among older
pilots is medical related. Of course, there is no good evidence for
that assumption, and it could as easily be explained with over
familiarity with aviation, complacency, and a resultant lack of due
diligence toward flight planning.

Without more information about the specifics of the AP's analysis,
it's difficult to know the validity of their "research" given the
usual plethora of inaccuracies of most aviation news stories.