Managing the risk of flying personal aircraft can be as simple as a bit more takeoff/landing practice, making sure we have fuel and avoiding poor weather.

By Joseph E. Burnside

Anyone who’s spent much time flying personal aircraft has been asked this question: Is it safe? As a rule, the answer is, "It depends." Because safety is relative, sitting at home can be the safest course of action. But it’s usually not very rewarding, and sitting at home makes it much more difficult to travel in a personal aircraft.

Beginning on page 24 of this issue, we look at a recent accident the NTSB attributed to low-level maneuvering. In critiquing that accident, we referred to the AOPA Air Safety Foundation (AOPA/ASF) and its most recent Nall Report, an annual in-depth look at GA accident trends. The data in those annual reports…