The thing that scares me is a mid-air. Yea, I know the chances are very low, but I have come close several times in these bloody "practice areas". Several times remain vivid im my mind...
First time that made me realise how dangerous they are was after departure, our route took us into one of these areas before heading off en-route. We were two PPLs onboard, scanning the skies, called up for a radar service and got an immediate "traffic alert, traffic less than quater of a mile same altitude". Of course it was hidden by the wing in a Cessna (horrible things, high wings), we saw it, coming straight for us from the left. Theoretically it was our right of way, but as the other party hadn't seen us, our avoiding action was to dive. I'm not exagerating how dangerous these areas can be, two instructors from the same school, with two students onboard collided a couple of year earlier, killing all 4 of them.
Second time, we were IFR, though the weather had become Vmc as we neared our destination. We were issued a descent clearance (this time in a low wing), and started descending. Soon after, pop-up traffic appeared on the controllers screen and he issued a traffic alert. Apparently an aircraft was climbing below us (turned out to be a Cessna), and we were descending on top of him. He had been below the controllers coverage until we got fairly close, but sods law we were about to occupy the same area of sky.
And finally, on a different note, early in my ME days I almost crashed a Seneca at Sedona. The landing was so bad that I felt like I had lost it, I was literally out of control, and waiting for the UC to collapse, or us to cartwheel or something. Still, I got away with it and it was evening so there weren't many people around to see
EA