jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I watch quite a few plane crash investigations on YouTube. Before and during many of them, there are ads for flying schools. You're watching a video about planes crashing and people dying. "Yeah, man! I want to learn how to fly!

By the way, flying schools and instructors are getting bad reputations for not teaching correctly and being responsible for crashes and deaths. Schools want to run students through the program, and students want to finish quickly and start accumulating the 1,500 hours they need to apply for a job with airlines.

KillroyII Loc: Middle Georgia

If you get the Smithsonian channel on TV, they show a lot of crash investigations.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Yes, I know. It's a shame that there is enough for them to report about. Of course, they go back decades in many cases. Blancolirio has reports every week about private plane crashes.

nospambob Loc: Edmond, Oklahoma

Try driving

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Interesting timing for this post for me.

Last Sunday a guy was flying low over a cornfield (just barely touching the tops of the cornstalks with his feet) with one of those little paragliders back on my farm. My friend was back there in a deer stand watching the guy ruin his afternoon of hunting with the noisy little thing. When the guy got to the end of the field, he didn't raise up enough to clear the trees. He hit the top of one and it flipped him like a slingshot about 20 yards out into my harvested soybean field, breaking at least one leg and ankle.

My friend called 911 for an ambulance, and then called me to go to the entrance to the field (no house, just a lane) to flag down the ambulance when it came, while he stayed with the injured "flyer."

I did, and the first on the scene was a firetruck with paramedics. They didn't want to chance driving the firetruck back through a field and across a creek, so they asked me for a ride in my F 150. I hauled them back to the guy.

In the meantime, another ambulance, another firetruck and ambulance from another district arrived, along with two deputy sheriffs, an emergency management guy, a fire department chief in a pickup, and a state police officer. They were all lined up out at the road.

The EMTs loaded the guy into the back of my truck, and I hauled him and them out to the road where the ambulance and eight other emergency vehicles awaited. They did thank me for the ride.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Some unpleasant excitement.

Harry02 Loc: Gardena, CA

Fuel leak? Pull over.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

On the otherhand, Jerry, a classmate of mine mowed lawns to make money during high school for flying lessons. After college he became an airline pilot, a job which he held until retirement, with NO CRASHES. One thing he told me was that flying the 757 empty was like flying a jet fighter.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Right. Flying is definitely the safest way to travel. It's just that when one crashes, it kills a lot of people at once, and it makes a very dramatic scene. Recent studies have shown that long-term flying, especially over the poles, exposes you to more radiation, with an increased chance of cancer.