I'm happy believing the motorcycling statistic (until something better comes along) ... but the point is that with aeroplanes you can cheat. The theory goes like this:
If you're riding a bike you're most likely to die because someone else is out to get you, and in fact that's why I stopped riding a bike, too many people pulling out in front of me "sorry mate I didn't see you" (WTF do they think I had the headlight on for).
If you're flying you're more likely (than a motorcyclist is) to die because of something you've done wrong yourself (VFR into IMC, running out of fuel, handling error near the ground, etc) rather than because of something completely extraneous over which you had no control. So you can cheat by reading the accident reports and choosing not to do the things that the other pilots did, where pilot error is identified, thus giving yourself better odds than the average for all pilots.
Example: after reading about two or three cases of fatal accidents following ASI failures I got an instructor to watch me fly a circuit and landing with the ASI covered up, so with this experience I hope that if the ASI fails for real I won't panic and crash.
Only thing is ... the pilots that had accidents were probably operating to the same theory
You can also cheat by driving very badly on the way to the airport so that your passenger feels much safer in the air by comparison
