Very cool, indeed! If I can get over my damned fear of flying...that is the
first place I'm going to visit.

--Tina

Get over it now! It's bloody stupid!

If you look at the statistics for accidents in the home, and on the roads,
you would want to be in a plane all the time!!!

--
Charles Sweeney
http://CharlesSweeney.com

The wings are meant to bend and flap under stress .. don't worry about it ;)

Take a cruise. Why fly when time isn't a consideration?

--
eric
www.ericjarvis.co.uk
"live fast, die only if strictly necessary"

Er, not quite!

http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/cgi-bi...word=statistics

Matt

Hrmmm...you might have a winning idea there, Eric! :-)

--Tina

See, I've been in a few car accidents and survived...with only minor bumps.
Its highly unlikely that you'll walk away from a plan crash and live to tell
about it. That's how I look at it.

--Tina (yes, I know its an irrational fear!)

That is just thoroughly misleading, to compare the *number* of journeys.
Naturally there are much more journeys in the car, popping out to the
shops for example.

How many people do you know who have been injured or killed in a road
accident, versus an air accident? There was your young lad last week
had his bike crash.

I know of lots of people who have been injured or killed in road
crashes. I don't know any from air accidents.

In Britain, ~3,000 people per year are killed on the roads. I don't
know the numbers for air accidents, but I bet it's not even 300.

I would fly in a plane any day, rather than tackle the A66 on a winter's
evening!

Then there's the stats for accidents in the home. Again, you are much
safer in a plane than sitting at home watching TV!

--
Charles Sweeney
http://CharlesSweeney.com

Thanks to Matt spoiling our efforts by feeding you that bull!

It's highly unlikely you'll be in the plane crash in the first place!

Maybe you should take a flying lesson Tina. I had a one-hour lesson.
Did most things, turning, climbing, descending. The instructor was
showing me different handling characteristics, like putting the flaps
on, cutting right back on the gas, making it fly straight while using
rudder that's trying to turn it.

When we landed, my impression was that the plane would have flown
regardless of what we did with it. It just wants to fly!

Bear in mind also (a bit like our business) there is redundancy in
everything. A jet will fly happily on one engine. Part of the training
for the private pilots licence is deliberately cutting the engine and
stalling the plane so that it dives, then recovering it.

--
Charles Sweeney
http://CharlesSweeney.com

Here's the UK stats for you. (Bloody nightmare trying to find
summarised stats!)

Road deaths (Year 2004):

3,221

Air deaths (Year 2003):

15

I imagine these figures would extrapolate out to mean much the same for
the US.

Source. UK Government Department for Transport (http://www.dft.gov.uk)

Road deaths http://tinyurl.com/dpwlp (pdf file)

Air deaths http://tinyurl.com/92scy

--
Charles Sweeney
http://CharlesSweeney.com

Yes, but how many people drive and how often - as opposed to flying?

--Tina

If you only fly a few times a year, you'll be fine!

What about all those pilots who have flown every day for years?

--
Charles Sweeney
http://CharlesSweeney.com

I heard a Doctor on the radio. They were discussing the fear of flying.
They were talking about all the "treatments" including medication.

His conclusion: A couple of glasses of whisky! (seriously)

--
Charles Sweeney
http://CharlesSweeney.com

The *relevant* stat is injuries/deaths *per 100,000 miles*[1], and aviation
injuries/deaths per mile are far lower than those for driving.

[1]Or per million miles, or whatever.

--
Blinky Linux Registered User 297263
Killing all Usenet posts from Google Groups
Info: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html
*ALSO contains links for access to the NON-BETA GG archive interface*

The best stats for comparison are injuries/deaths per [bignum] miles
traveled. Aviation is safer.

--
Blinky Linux Registered User 297263
Killing all Usenet posts from Google Groups
Info: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html
*ALSO contains links for access to the NON-BETA GG archive interface*

Should, against all the odds [1], I win the lottery I shall do a world
tour. This will be entirely a mix of boats and trains. The travelling
should be part of the trip.

[1] For a real long shot you can't beat winning the lottery without buying
a ticket.

--
eric
www.ericjarvis.co.uk
"live fast, die only if strictly necessary"

Well, you can console yourself that it's a fear that was shared by the
late author of science and science-fiction books, Doctor Isaac Asimov.
He never flew at all. (He also gave one of his characters a similar
fear: an expert on extraterrestrial geology, Doctor Wendel Urth, never
left Earth.)

--
Can you Change: N O V A Halifax to N O V A Halifax *
* S C O T I A . S C O T I A .
in 34 moves? (*==Lobster) http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~af380/JSNSPuz.html
(Requires a browser supporting the W3C DOM such as Firefox or IE ver 6)

Is it irrational?

I can appreciate that a fear of flying can be a disadvantage - my
mother refuses to fly which has greatly restricted foreign travel. But
I don't think it's actually irrational to be scared of flying.

Matt


--
The Probert Encyclopaedia - Beyond Britannica
http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com

Cheers Charles!

It's refreshing that we disagree over something, but please don't
describe my take as "bull". Statistics can be used to argue any side
of a debate, that is my point.

But I still maintain that flying is more dangerous than driving.

Matt

My point is not so much about the relative safety of different
activities, but more the misleading nature of statistics.

I fly. It doesn't bother me. But I still appreciate flying is
dangerous.

Matt

Meh!

--
Charles Sweeney
http://CharlesSweeney.com

Kinda like females.

Just on my way out...

--
Dennis

Only if you crash.

--
Dennis

Good point. I forgot to mention that no-one is afraid of flying, it's
crashing that frightens them.

--
Charles Sweeney
http://CharlesSweeney.com

I'm sure there are plenty of people who are afraid of the flying part.

--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
Contact Me ~ http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact

For why? What's scary about it?

--
Charles Sweeney
http://CharlesSweeney.com

Well, for one thing: what happens when your arms get tired?


--
William Tasso

Dunno. Doesn't scare me. But I'm sure there are people who are scared of
flying even though they have absolute faith that they're not going to
crash.

--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
Contact Me ~ http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact

I once spoke with another passenger on an airplane who seemed terrified
and tried to point out all of the facilities used to make sure the
airplane didn't crash. (I didn't mention that some cynical pilots in the
RCAF claimed that GCA stood for "Gonna Crash Anyway.") It turned out that
she wan't afraid of a crash. One time, as a child, she had had the floor
give out below her in a termite-infested building. She had the irrational
fear (and knew it was irrational) of the floor of the airplane giving out
underneath her and her falling to her death.

(The closest I've come to something like that is have the rotted wooden
cover of a septic tank underneath a lawn collapse under me and I ended up
(literally) in shit up to my armpits.)

--
Windows is *not* a "Toy OS". A screenshot of my desktop:
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~af380/temp/MyDe...Jun-22-2005.gif