The GA safety record also includes student pilots, weekend pilots, crop-dusters, and other high-risk flight operations.

Scheduled airlines are operated under FAA Part 121 rules, charter operators work under Part 135 rules, and everything below that is under Part 91 rules. Part 135 operations are much safer than for all GA. It's safer than driving, though not quite as safe as flying a scheduled air carrier.

From the NTSB (http://www.ntsb.gov/aviation/table1.htm), in 2009 scheduled air carriers had 0.006 fatalities per 100,000 flight hours, on-demand carriers 0.07 per 100,000, and all GA 1.33 fatalities per 100,000 hours.

It's a fair point. Nevertheless, when faced with a tenfold increase in the risk of death, I suspect most people would opt for dealing with the TSA.

Regardless, the debate is pointless--GA is not a realistic solution for 95% of air travelers.

> It's a fair point. Nevertheless, when faced with a tenfold increase in the risk of death, I suspect most people would opt for dealing with the TSA.

Only when presented in an alarming but meaningless manner like that.