I remember on my first ever flight in a light GA looking down at some hefty tyres which I know would do serious damage if dropped from ten feet onto someones head and seeing that tyre lifting skywards as the aircraft climbed.
We are not meant to defy gravity gravity defies us.
How many people are paralysed through falling off horses every year or off ladders fixing the house.
If we had a world which had no weather cavok, clear skies and no winds and could stop an aircraft stalling or flying into another flying would be extremely safe.
Bring in the weather, the winds, fog, shear etc and this becomes our enemy.
It then holds that if we can fly in cloud safely as out of cloud and the aircraft is equipt to deal with all that clouds hold including ice flying becomes very safe.
Obviously we still have other factors of weather like thunderstorms, and strong winds.
The airlines are well equipt and their pilots well trained but the light GA is not.
Flown on good weather days the light GAs are very safe but put an underpowered light GA out of its design element to deal with weather its pilots are not trained or experienced to deal with and the airframe is not designed to handle and there lies the problem for heavy accident stats in light GA.
Always have a way out.
From the list and probably the best bit of advice! Never do anything in aviation where there are no options other than the one you are taking as that then becomes a game of russian roulette.
Always fly within your and the aircrafts limit as either you or the aircraft out of those limits is asking for trouble! Above all know what those limits are as many dont.
Contrary to the above is a saying I love which can be read two ways.
" unless you push the boundaries of your limits you will never know what lies beyond" Ie you either survive and become a much more experienced pilot or sadly for some end up as a statistic.
Pace