Eric Anderson

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• July 4, 2006, on General Aviation Safety:

  I'm just starting with lessons. I'm not worried about dying in a crash. For one thing, EVERYBODY dies of something eventually. Life is a terminal disease. Second, though it is true that flying a light plane is statistically "more dangerous" than driving, it is also true that the odds of dying in a plane crash are still very low. "20 times more likely...." sounds scary, but if you're talking about 20 chances out of a MILLION, that's still pretty darned small. Lastly, flying safety is something a pilot can actively do something about. You have control over most of the risk factors. Since I'm doing it strictly for fun, there is simply no reason to tempt fate by flying in less-than-ideal conditions. With experience I'll probably push my own envelope a little bit more, but how big that "envelope" is is still a choice that I make. Nearly all so-called "accidents", in planes or otherwise, happen because somebody does something they shouldn't have done...or didn't do something they sh...

• July 4, 2006, on Learning to Fly:

  I flew a "discovery flight" in a Cessna 172, and my lessons have been in a Katana. Both planes were relatively new. (My school doesn't keep them more than 3 or 4 years, tops.) The Cessna was enough to put me off flying. It was like a rickety old schoolbus. I didn't feel like I was "flying" so much as "making vague suggestions to the airplane", which it would take under advisement and possibly obey when it got around to it. The Katana does what I tell it to do. I guess there are cheaper ways to fly. I pay $90 for a nearly new Katana. But their Cessna is $120 per hour. (Gotta love that $4 per gallon avgas.) I could save a little by finding a "school" with a tired old 152, but I wouldn't enjoy it as much...and since I'm only in it for the fun, enjoyment is everything. The lessons ARE my hobby, not just something I have to endure in order to start a hobby. I like the Katana. It is what it is, though. It's not a cargo plane, by any stretch. And, at 6'3", a couple of hou...