As Andy noted, the FAA does not systematically collect glider pilot related
flight data. This is also true for Ultra-light, balloon, and the rapidly
growing Sport Pilot communities.

Without knowing the number of flights and flight hours, it is very difficult
to develop meaningful statistical based risk analysis.

There is even a problem using the FAA database to identify the number of
pilots with a specific rating. It appears from doing a couple "spot check"
that pilots who have died are not being removed. So, currently the only way
to identify active pilots is to identify those with active medicals. The
only solution that I can think of is for the FAA to start recording biannual
flight review dates. A pilot's flight history could be part of the biannual
report.

Wayne
HP-14 "Six Foxtrot"
http://www.soaridaho.com/



"Andy" wrote in message
...
On Jul 4, 4:56 pm, Jim Logajan wrote:

I think that for a meaningful risk analysis the number of fatalities
should be compared to either the hours of risk exposure, or the number
of risk exposure events. This means either the number of flights, or
the number of flight hours, should be used rather than the number of
people qualified to participate.

FAA atempts to gather data on power pilots flight hours at every
medical exam. That data is not collected for pilots with only a
glider rating.


Andy