So I've been building an ultralight

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Zebidee:

--- Quote from: RandyT on April 19, 2024, 10:52:28 am ---But statistics will be statistics. It's not the total number of fatalities which are important, but the overall percentage of fatalities for the number of active operators. I would suspect that there are a LOT more cycles on the roads than hobbyists buzzing around the skies.

--- End quote ---

You are correct to point this out. However, those statistics compare JUST motorcycle rider fatalities with ALL power aircraft occupant fatalities - which means it includes everything from large commercial aircraft to things like helicopters and light planes and ultralights (but not gliders). There is no further breakdown, and that category covers a lot of people doing a lot of stuff, not just ultralight hobbyists. Queensland is BIG, people fly there a lot and for many reasons.

No doubt, motorcycles can be quite dangerous even if you are careful. A lot of what makes them dangerous is other drivers with poor awareness.

For the curious, there were a total of 324 transport accident related deaths in Queensland for 2022 (V01-V99).

Interestingly 11 people died due to "Sleep disorders (G47)" :o Even sleeping is dangerous. A further 4 people died from falling off chairs (W07), so sitting can be dangerous too.

Life is short, don't worry too much, do what makes you happy, just please try to be as safe as reasonably possible.

danny_galaga:
2.6 times the size of Texas

RandyT:
That is pretty large. Land mass really isn't that much if an indicator though. People don't travel on long trips like they used to before Skype, Covid, etc. But people do still commute, go to the store and visit friends locally.

If you really want to know how safe an activity is, you have to do what insurance companies attempt to do, which is determine the number of hours on the road/ in the sky and compare that to the fatality record. Good luck coming up with accurate numbers though. Flight logs probably make this easy for aircraft, but there are no accurate records of that nature for cycles.

danny_galaga:
Actuaries have their methods. And it's reflected in the premiums- a light plane costs a lot more to insure than a motorbike, so I guess really riding a bike is safer. But PERSONALLY I feel safer in the air than on a motorbike.
Incidentally, what type of plane it is effects your premium too. Mines not quite ready to insure but I know that because my plane is a tail dragger, the premium is roughly $1000 a year ON TOP of premium. If I had built the tricycle version of my kit, I'd save $1000 a year on insurance. Why?They fly exactly the same. But tail draggers are more likely to have accidents on the ground when taking off or landing. Usually a ground loop. Not normally resulting in any injury, but can cause damage to the plane.

RandyT:
Trying not to sound too grim here, but caskets are a lot cheaper than extended medical stays. And aircraft are much more costly than cycles. Two things which probably get factored into the premiums in a substantial way. So insurance costs probably aren't really great indicators of safety either, regardless of how good their estimations of use happen to be. :)

IOW, insurance companies are MUCH more concerned with the fiscal aspects than human life and limb. You'd probably need to get ahold of some of those closely guarded internal numbers to get a real feel for what they believe with regard to actual safety of the activity.

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