Based on my personal experiences of close friends and colleagues, I have lost four due to disease, two to suicide, two to car accidents, two in hang-glider crashes and one in a sailplane accident. Since we spend more time driving than flying, I have to think that hang-gliding is the most dangerous of these activities and gliding more so than driving.

Of my personal near-death experiences, one was being knocked from my motorcycle, one was a horse-riding accident (back in my competitive days) and one was a near car accident. All of these three could easily have been fatal. I haven't had any comparable fright in gliders in 46 years of flying.

Any activity that involves speed or height above the ground is potentially dangerous. (I seem to remember that after deep-sea divers and fisherman, jockeys have one of the highest job-fatality rates in the UK). I doubt that gliding is the worst.

Flying cross-country in the Southwest, particularly with gaggles of other gliders, is no doubt somewhat hazardous. Like many, I have found the rewards of doing so far exceed the possible downsides.

Mike