Aging Pilots: Part Two – Hangar Flying

By Mike Davenport, EAA 89102; Langley, British Columbia

Last time I raised this subject I had a bit of uncertainty about my future as a pilot. It looked grim, and that uncertainty has been removed. I will be unable to get my medical restored. It seems that if I be a good boy and take my medications and am “incident-free” for six months, I can get my driving privileges restored. As of this writing I’m two months into my probation. All is well, I feel fine, and I’m developing a relationship with a new (to me) medication that will be lifelong.

I am thrilled with the idea of being able to drive once again, however, it does raise a question or two. Apparently, if all goes well, I will be once more allowed on the road with no restrictions other than the basic rules of the road as policed by our county Mounties.

Here are some statistics that stick in my craw.

In the four years of 2018 to 2021, there were 180 fatalities per year in automobiles in Canada, for a total of 720 people who lost their lives.

In the same period, there was a total of 156 who died in all airplane crashes including commercial passenger flights. 2019 was a bad year with 70 deaths that year alone. Remove 2019 from the list and the other three-year average is 28 per year.

Any loss of life in an airplane or car is tragic, and I do not make light of that, but it appears that using those numbers, it is six times more dangerous on the road than in the air. My thinking suggests that someone is far more likely to get killed or cause the death of another when behind the wheel of a car when on our highways than it is when in the air at the controls of a light aircraft.

Yet, in the suspect logic of today, I can go back on those roads with their inherent higher risk potential but not into what is clearly a safer environment, the sky.
There are those who would suggest that at age 80, I should “suck it up” in the belief that I’ve had a good run — and I have, but I have never been one to accept the status quo just because the rest of the world does.

And of course, I still look up when an airplane flies over.

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