What’s the most dangerous part of flight training? It depends on how you define “danger,” not to mention who’s flying.
If bending an airplane is your idea of a bad day, then landings are clearly the biggest problem. Over the past 10 years, almost 30 percent of all noncommercial airplane accidents happened during landing. They account for more than half of all accidents involving student pilots, and almost 60 percent of those on student solos. However, more than 98 percent caused no serious injuries.
Takeoffs gone wrong are the second-largest class, making up about 13 percent of all accidents in primary training, and they’re about six times likelier to cause death or serious injury than bad landings. That risk doubles again when accidents occur during go-arounds. Taken together, takeoffs, landings, and go-arounds make up more than 70 percent of all accidents during primary instruction, and three-quarters of all accidents on student solos.
Only a little more than 3 percent of all accidents occurred during maneuvering, yet nearly two thirds killed or badly injured someone—16 percent of all serious accidents. About half of the maneuvering accidents in dual instruction happened while practicing emergency procedures (do not allow simulated emergencies to become real), while almost half of those on student solos occurred during low-altitude buzzing (do not to be impulsive, overconfident, or just boneheaded).
More than 80 percent of the primary training accidents between 1999 and 2008 (1,023 of 1,261) happened during student solos, even though solos typically make up less than half of student flight time. However, accidents in dual instruction were twice as likely to cause serious injuries. This doesn’t mean that CFIs are leading their students to perdition. Bounced landings and lapses in directional control are less likely to get out of hand under the instructor’s watchful eye. Students do well to fly solo as if their instructor’s are still watching.
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