In article ,
says...
I have far more scary
moments driving on a motorway due to totally incompetent manouvres by idiots
than I ever have sailing/climbing/parachuting/sailing where I can rely
entirely on my own preparation and planning.

Not actually true though if you think about it.

Climbing, and alpine climbing in particular, you can be killed just by
being in the wrong place/wrong time. Serac collapse and rockfall are the
main causes. Climbers have a term for this: "objective risk". It means
if you choose to do this particular route, you can do everything right
and still come to grief.

Not true of Nimbus's sport either (mine also at one time). There are
glider pilots who have been knocked out of the sky by other aircraft,
typically other gliders in crowded thermals. Wrong place, wrong time. I
even know a glider pilot who was struck by lightening.

Sailing.....maybe less of a case to make, but a friend of a friend was
drowned when out in F9 when the maximum breeze forecast was F6. Wrong
place, wrong time.

At an order of magnitude driving and climbing involve something around a
1 in 10,000 annual risk of being killed. Alpine climbing is a lot higher
(back to "objective risk") as is gliding. Sailing is lower. Climbing and
sailing don't have reliable participation figures so precise figures
aren't obtainable.

On Mon, 17 Apr 2006 08:33:00 UTC, Stefan wrote:

: Not true of Nimbus's sport either (mine also at one time). There are
: glider pilots who have been knocked out of the sky by other aircraft,
: typically other gliders in crowded thermals.

I knew an instructor at Portmoak (Scottish Gliding Union) who looked
up once to see the mainwheel of a slowly overtaking glider less than
two feet above his canopy. Thank goodness he had the presence of mind
not to dive away...

Ian

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