Chukka... Point taken. As DSAA said, everybody finds a formula and lives with it. If we want to be 100% safe, we would not be flying but play chess all day long. Or simply stay in bed.

I don't know about that Lightning display pilot incident. Was he doing a display with his wife on board?

The bird strike angle is one that I, up to now, have never considered in full before. I realise we're drifting off-topic big-time here, but it would be interesting to know what the certification requirements are for a GA aircraft with respect to a birdstrike. I read somewhere in another thread that CAT has to have front windows certified for striking birds up to a certain weight up to 250 knots. Anything like that for GA aircraft? And are there any reasonable measures a GA pilot can take to reduce the risk/lessen the impact, other than wearing an integral helmet (with visor) and avoiding bird areas?

And indeed, motorbikes scare me a lot more than airplanes. They were not my piece of cake to begin with, and now one of my friends has become an ambulance driver and told us a few stories about motorbike accidents and the general (non-)survivability of them, even in full protective gear. Apparently it's not the driving or the accident that's dangerous, but the guardrails at the side of the road.

Good point about the birdstrike resistance in GA machines there Backpacker, I'd like to know those figures to if they were available, or indeed exist. Probably not though is the answer.

With the Lightning chap, he did the display, then parked the big machine up and did the recreational flying in a GA machine, hence why she was on board.

As for motorbikes, well, a good friend of mine is a surgeon, and he was a big part of why I gave up. That and becoming a dad. Simply put, he calls them 'Organ harvestors', because thats what they are. More so now with the 30 something guys going back to them after a 15 year absence, and discovering that machines have moved on in capability requirements somewhat.

And yet I know bikers who think my Robinson addiction is scary.:confused:

Bose-x
 

Please tell us you were joking about the 'cherokee,pilots,ppls,shopping trip to cherbourg'.

Did you hold your tongue or make a comment to them.

According to various sources a lot of air accidents are survivable, it is what happend after the impact that kills people, the main one being trapped inside something burning.

Being an ex-Air Loadmaster (briefly) and having to deal with pax safety and expeditious egress I always insist my family keep their shoes on for take off and landing when flying on Airlines, as most crash sites are made up of twisted metal, broken glass and hot things, the last thing you want to be worrying about is your feet (they think I am an old woman...)

I think we have to balance safety, comfort, risk and image. If I was flying anything aerobatic I would wear a gro-bag, for a spam-can sensible cotton clothes, flying boots, and when I find them, my RAF issue gloves.

BTW we tested the Flame resistance of the gloves whilst on our Survival training, we were able to put our hands into a fire to take the food out without feeling too much heat. ( I caught some trout on the first night, so we were able to poach them in the emergency water sachets...very tasty breakfast!)

I grew up being taught the same things as Wessex Boy (at the same place and roughly the same time, too) but now simply carry a child's doll or teddy bear on each trip.

On footage of CAT aircraft accidents there is always a shot of a teddy bear or doll that has survived the carnage, therefore if one is holding the bear...

LOL JAFO!

On the same theme, I was once taught that whenever there is a disaster anywhere in the World there is always an Irish Survivor that gets interviewed.......Trouble is after all that Guiness you need to place them close to the datum to get your Weight & Balance within the envelope.....:E

When I instructed on gliders with the Space Cadets, we had all the RAF gear- growbag, polonecked undershirts, socks,boots, jackets, and gloves-white and green cold weather ones....looked very smart, but a bit OTT to fly a glider! -not much chance of a fire there! We even had name tags...nicknamed "Tebbs'" after the poor barsteward whose name was used on the advertsing bumf for them!
But all this stuff was 'uniform' and you were expected to wear it, even in mid summer. In winter it was marvellous stuff- certainly kept the wind out!

As to mars bars on the shoulders...NO NO NO!

As a commercial balloon pilot, I've seen other pilots having to wear bars and white shirts- Africa, the US, and Oz are prime examples of where they think it neccessary to dress their pilots up in fancy dress. But I've even seen it in the UK...the day I'm forced to wear mars bars is the day I give up ballooning for a living...

Andy

four bars
 

Shoreham had a beagle/bull odg fly in this week-end.

While i was there, a chap got out of is light/single engine/normally aspirated piston aircraft wearing.

1. An RAF flight suit. I can understand this if he was doing aero's, but no-one else was wearing one, as far as i could see)

2. More disturbingly, attached to the suit was, Yes 4 gold bars on each shoulder. NO EXCUSE