Who is the safer pilot

Who is the safer pilot

  • Pilot A

    Votes: 25 75.8%

  • Pilot B

    Votes: 8 24.2%
  • Total voters
    33
Jaybird180

Jaybird180

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Jaybird180
Pilot A flies (on average) 4 hours per month or 12hrs per quarter or 48hrs per year. Mostly short breakfast runs with the occasional 100-200 mile trip thrown in here and there.

Pilot B flies the same 48 hrs per year, but only flies once or twice per quarter. Mainly long trips, experiencing different weather systems, airports, airspace, etc.

Who's safer and why?
 
I'd say whichever of the two pilots exhibits the best decision making in regards to go/no-go, diligence regarding his planning, preparation, and the maintenance of his plane, and - above all else - whichever pilot does the least amount of stupid things (perhaps the least laissez-fare of the two).

Sorry...definitely not the answer you were looking for :).
 
They are equally safe given all else being equal. Safety is in how one thinks.
 
The RV pilot, as long as he does an overhead break. :stirpot:

I actually think Henning hit it on the head: Safety is all about what happens between the ears before the prop spins.
 
Which one of them has the most toys?
 
I think a pilot that flies more frequently has better situational awareness and is more in tune with the plane. It doesn't seem like flying once every 6 weeks would do it, even if they are longer flights. Obviously, there is a lot more to safety than how often you fly, though.
 
Jaybird180 said:
Pilot A flies (on average) 4 hours per month or 12hrs per quarter or 48hrs per year. Mostly short breakfast runs with the occasional 100-200 mile trip thrown in here and there.

Pilot B flies the same 48 hrs per year, but only flies once or twice per quarter. Mainly long trips, experiencing different weather systems, airports, airspace, etc.

Who's safer and why?
Click to expand...

What dwalt said. Let's say I fly a NORDO Champ. Out of the 6 different airspace classes, I can only fly in E and G. Doesn't mean I'm less safe than a guy that has a M20K that can fly in all of them. I think you also need to consider the equipment type. I wouldn't want to fly something like a Beech Duke or a C421 only once a quarter - but a C172 once a quarter is a different story, since there's less to forget and less severe consequences for forgetting to do something or doing something incorrectly.
 
Are both pilots flying the same type of airplane?

Is one flying a Cirrus?
 
I think there's a lot more to the equation, most of which may (or may not) have happened during a pilot's prior experience. I fly more breakfast runs and short trips now, but prefer to think that I haven't forgotten what happened during the prior 12k hours of doing the other stuff.
 
Not enough information is provided, and not the right information, either.

Hours don't mean much.
 
Pilot is A is safer. Pilot B is a student pilot for most of his or her flights.
 
I would say Pilot A has more takeoffs and landings, and experience in those high risk phases of flight might give her a safety edge. But I agree with Henning, both have the potential to be safe pilots if they want to.
 
48hrs a year!! Heck I more then that in 2 weeks, at 4hrs a month I would say both are in the danger zone of being proficient, flying doesn't take well to weekend warriors.

To your question, pilot B is the better pilot, however pilot A is the safer pilot.
 
If I had to pick one I may be different and say pilot B.

My humble opinion is that on short breakfast runs preflight planning has a tendency to get minimal attention or thrown out the window all together. Pilot B would be more diligent in preparing for all phases of the flight.

If we were talking about proficiency I may give more weight to pilot A...However, I think safety starts well before the hobbs does.
 
steingar said:
This is POA. Obviously the pilot flying the tailwheel aircraft.
Click to expand...

The ones flying RV's doing overhead breaks. :rofl:

Pilot B is safer. More experience with weather, diverting, airport choices, dealing with courtesy cars, ATC, ;)
 
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48 hours a year? You have got to be kidding. It's going to take a guy with the right "safety" brain plus an unusual amount of dedication to devoting a high percentage of those hours to just remaining stick competent (slow flight, short field procedures, tough crosswinds), let alone remaining competent as to weather analysis, extraction of utility, etc.

There are actually two issues here. "Judgement", which recognizes no ratings nor total hours, and is independent of them; and competency. 48 hours is a strain on competency in and of itself.

75 hours- now there's some room to play with.
 
Pilot A because of the frequency of his/her flights. More preflights, more run ups, less reaquaintance needed with the aircraft, etc.
 
I suspect both pilots are suspect. While they might be squeaking through with some level of proficiency, neither of those flight regimes instills a lot of confidence that they are keeping their abilities up and coupled with an once every other year couple of hours with an instructor, it's suspect.
 
(This comming from a student pilot) I have always felt that frequency is very important. My plan is, once I get my PPL, to fly every week...even if some weeks all I can afford is 30 minutes to go up and get in a few trips around the pattern...at least I am keeping my takeoff and landing skills current. Then maybe once a month try to do a little cross country. Unless I can afford more...of course.
 
cleared4theoption said:
(This comming from a student pilot) I have always felt that frequency is very important. My plan is, once I get my PPL, to fly every week...even if some weeks all I can afford is 30 minutes to go up and get in a few trips around the pattern...at least I am keeping my takeoff and landing skills current. Then maybe once a month try to do a little cross country. Unless I can afford more...of course.
Click to expand...

This is almost exactly what I've been doing. In the summer time, because I'm a teacher, I can fly more often and probably fly 1 or 2 times a week. I'm on pace to get 50 or so hours in my first year as a Private pilot. I would say that I feel safe when I'm flying but my confidence has lowered a bit since training because proficiency is really important. I've also made it a point to take a proficiency lesson every month since the summer began( one to take a class bravo flight, the next to work on landings and now for cross wind landing practice).

Not sure the original question has an answer but I'll go with the pilot who makes more takeoffs and landings.
 
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I think it depends on what is being done, and with whom.

I made it easy for myself by setting this standard: Once a month--no matter how much I've flown--I go up for three hours with an instructor and work on some combination of approaches, airwork, and landings. That guarantees that even if I did no other flying for a whole year, which is highly unlikely, I would have 36 hours of training.

Now, in the past few years I haven't flown as much as I used to which was about 120 hours per year. But I see that I've at least been flying 20-30 hours solo on top of the above. Sometimes I have spurts, as in the past month during which I flew nearly 15 hours (transition training followed by that seven-hour XC to Massachusetts).

So the proportion is important. I have an absolute bottom limit of 36 hours of well-balanced training, spread evenly throughout the year.
 
bbchien said:
48 hours a year? You have got to be kidding. It's going to take a guy with the right "safety" brain plus an unusual amount of dedication to devoting a high percentage of those hours to just remaining stick competent (slow flight, short field procedures, tough crosswinds), let alone remaining competent as to weather analysis, extraction of utility, etc.

There are actually two issues here. "Judgement", which recognizes no ratings nor total hours, and is independent of them; and competency. 48 hours is a strain on competency in and of itself.

75 hours- now there's some room to play with.
Click to expand...

True, but there is another factor not considered and that is the level and quality of past experience and training. All things being equal between their brains, a 48hr a year guy who used to fly the same plane 300 hrs a year and had an excellent instructor from primacy with a total time of 2000hrs then takes off on a trip 4 times a year is going to be a lot better off than the guy who's flown 48 hrs a year for 10 years taking a year and a half to earn his PP and flies to a pancake breakfast a couple times a month.
 
That is true. When I was in highschool, if I took two days off from the cello, it took a week to get back to where I was.

Then I went through 10 years of college and gradschool, and 4-8 hours of practice a day, multiple performances of every kind, etc.

Now, after probably 30,000 hours of practice, and hundreds of concerts since then, I can take a week off, and I only need a day to get back to where I was.
 
It all depends on which one was leaning forward on the overhead break while still on a flight plan as others complimented him on his instruments.

Each one is as dangerous as the other.
 
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