On Mar 21, 5:51*pm, toad wrote:
On Mar 21, 11:26*am, bildan wrote:

On Mar 21, 6:45*am, "
wrote:

Anything that dangerous must be fun *On the other hand sailplanes
have a terrible safety record, training and experience doesn't seem to
help either.

I would rephrase...

Pilots who think training and experience doesn't matter tend to have
terrible safety records.

Just to make the counter argument, that the original article is
making.
"There are risks that training do not seem to be able to mitigate."

If your wing spar has an X % of breaking on every flight, no amount of
pilot training will reduce that percentage. *You can not mitigate that
risk with pilot training, you must re-design the spar. *The same is
with paragliders, there are inherent risks of collapse in the design.


Somehow there's a thought process that's found its way into aviation.
It's, "Gliding must be dangerous 'cause it sure ain't me that's
dangerous". Well, it is the pilot who's dangerous.

Humans are ALWAYS the weakest link. Training and experience
strengthen that link. Training and experience absolutely reduce risk.
Otherwise, why would anyone bother to train and test aviators?

For a long time now 95% of all GA accidents have been caused by pilot
error. It's not hard to ascribe the other 5% to pilots as well since
the pilot is charged with insuring his (it's usually guys) aircraft is
airworthy.

An airworthy spar in a glider flown by a well trained pilot who knows
and follows the rules has a 0% chance of breaking.