plane down near seattle

I follow your logic, but I didn't make the theme of my questions clear. If
you feel that any activity in which you participate is risky enough to
change your preparedness level, then why do you let your passengers
participate without changing theirs? Shouldn't you make them aware of your
risk avoidance techniques and allow them to make their own decisions?

Hmmm - it's a thought-provoking idea. Flying by myself it obviously isn't an
issue. Flying with other aircrew, I'd have to say "They know the risks and
are responsible for their own risk management". Flying with non-aircrew -
it's not something I've really thought about. They're always happy to wear a
life jacket - they're happy to accept things like an aviation survival kit
being on board - they're happy with items in the emergency equipment/action
portion of the pre-flight safety briefing. They wouldn't be as familiar with
aviation risks as we are, but having said that I'd say they're astute enough
to appreciate the elevated risk of anything to do with aviation.

Frankly, I'm finding passengers getting more and more nervous about
aviation - each time a (GA) pilot does something stupid and kills himself
and/or others it makes it just a little bit harder to get passengers
onboard - something I find frustrating.