...safe as?
A branch of aviation that does a fair bit of NVFR in this country is AG. There is an odd accident (1 this year?) but for hours flown (very demanding work) I would think the accident rate is a lot lower than normal NVFR? All this with very basic instrumentation, up until a few years ago an AH was unusual and the only instruments were a T+B or turn coodinator, Airspeed and Altimeter. Thankfully now most have an AH even if it is ventui driven.