Learning to fly is not a dangerous activity by any reasonable standard, and it is meaningfully safer than the general aviation average it gets lumped in with, because almost all of it happens with a professional instructor beside you, in chosen weather, near an airport, in a commercially maintained aircraft. The honest qualification is that it is not zero risk, and the part of the process that deserves your attention is not the part most students worry about.
This page is the instructor's answer to a question we get asked most weeks. The published accident data behind it, with sources, is on are small planes safe, and the wider subject of anxiety about flying is covered on fear of flying and how pilots would fix it.
The Short Answer
The FAA's General Aviation Safety Fact Sheet puts the whole-of-general-aviation fatal accident rate at an estimated 0.68 per 100,000 flight hours for FY2024. That figure averages flight training together with agricultural flying, backcountry operations, experimental first flights, night single-engine cross-country trips and everything else that is not an airline. Flight training is at the conservative end of that range, for reasons that are structural rather than lucky.
We are not going to invent a number for instructional flying specifically, because the published breakdowns are revised and we would rather you read the source than trust our transcription. The AOPA Air Safety Institute publishes an annual analysis of non-commercial fixed-wing accidents by type of flying, and its editions have consistently shown instructional flying accounting for a smaller share of fatal accidents than personal flying. Read the current edition if you want the detail.
What Students Fear Versus What Actually Goes Wrong
There is an almost perfect mismatch between the two, and seeing it laid out does more good than reassurance does.
| What students worry about | What the FAA data ranks as a leading fatal cause |
|---|---|
| The engine stopping | Power system component failure is second on the list, but an engine failure in a light aircraft is survivable and is trained to proficiency from early in the course |
| Turbulence | Does not appear on the list at all |
| The wings coming off | Does not appear on the list at all |
| Mid-air collision | Does not appear on the list of leading causes |
| Being unable to land the airplane | Not a listed cause; landings are the single most practiced maneuver in the syllabus |
| Rarely worried about: stalling in a turn at low altitude | Loss of control in flight is the leading cause by a clear margin |
| Rarely worried about: flying into weather they cannot handle | Accidental flight into bad weather is a leading cause and is a decision, not an event |
| Rarely worried about: flying into terrain in poor visibility | Controlled flight into terrain is a leading cause |
The pattern is consistent. Students fear mechanical failure and their own inability to operate the machine. The data says the risk lies in handling an entirely serviceable aircraft beyond its limits at low altitude, and in continuing into conditions that should have prompted a turn back. Both of those are exactly what instruction, syllabus discipline and weather policy attack.
Why Dual Instruction Is Structurally Safer
Almost everything a student does in the first stage of training is dual, meaning an instructor is in the aircraft with you. That changes the risk profile in five specific ways.
There is a professional watching. The instructor's entire job for that hour is to monitor what you are doing and intervene before a small error becomes a consequential one. They have access to the controls at all times and they have already thought about what happens next. Almost no other learning environment offers that.
Nobody has anywhere to be. A large share of weather-related general aviation accidents involve a pilot under pressure to complete a trip. A training flight has no destination that matters, no passengers waiting, no hotel booking. Turning back costs nothing, which means turning back happens.
The conditions are chosen. Lessons are scheduled into good weather, at times of day suited to the exercise, in a local area the instructor knows well. Students are not sent into mountains at night in marginal visibility, which removes two of the FAA's leading causes almost entirely.
The aircraft is maintained commercially. An aircraft used for flight instruction for hire must have had an annual or 100-hour inspection within the preceding 100 hours of time in service under 14 CFR 91.409(b), and an annual inspection within the preceding 12 calendar months under 14 CFR 91.409(a). That is a far shorter interval than a privately owned aircraft flying 50 hours a year will see, and there is no owner weighing up whether a squawk can wait until next season.
The dangerous maneuvers are taught deliberately. Stalls, slow flight and engine-failure procedures are practiced on purpose, at safe altitude, repeatedly, with an instructor. The leading fatal cause in general aviation is loss of control in flight, and flight training is the only part of aviation where people deliberately go and practice recognizing and recovering from exactly that, before it can happen by accident.
What Your Instructor Is Doing That You Will Never Notice
Students usually picture an instructor as an examiner who corrects mistakes. Most of the job is quieter than that, and it is where the safety actually comes from.
An instructor is continuously running a version of the flight a few seconds ahead of the one you are flying. Before you turn onto final they have already decided what they will say if you are high, what they will do if you are low and slow, and where you are going if the engine stops on this particular leg. They are watching airspeed more than you are, because airspeed is the variable that separates a manageable situation from an unrecoverable one, and they will prompt you long before it becomes interesting.
They are also managing how much you are being asked to do. Overload is the enemy in early training, and a good instructor will quietly take the radios, or the navigation, or the checklist, so that you have capacity left for the thing being taught. When a lesson is going badly they will shrink it rather than push through, because a student who is saturated learns nothing and makes more errors.
And they are making the go or no-go decision with no incentive to go. That is not a small thing. It is the single structural advantage that dual instruction has over almost every other kind of general aviation flying, and it is the reason the weather-related accident causes in the FAA's list are largely absent from training.
The Part That Deserves Your Attention
If there is a phase of the process that warrants care, it is not the early lessons. It is the transition to solo flight, and then the first year after the checkride.
Solo Is A Gate, Not A Milestone
The FAA does not leave first solo to anybody's judgment alone. Under 14 CFR 61.87, before a student pilot may fly solo they must have received and logged flight training in a specified list of maneuvers and procedures for the make and model concerned, demonstrated proficiency in them to an authorized instructor, and passed a written aeronautical knowledge test covering the applicable parts of 14 CFR 61 and 91, the airspace rules at the airport concerned, and the aircraft's flight characteristics and operational limitations. The instructor must review every incorrect answer with the student before signing anything.
Then the instructor must endorse the student's logbook for that specific make and model, having given training within the preceding 90 days, and that endorsement must be renewed every 90 days for solo privileges to continue. In other words, a student pilot is repeatedly re-examined by a professional before being allowed to operate an aircraft alone, and the authorization expires by default. No other form of transport in the United States gates initial solo operation that tightly.
The First Year After The Checkride
This is the honest risk, and instructors talk about it among themselves more than they talk about it with students. A newly certificated private pilot has passed a practical test, is legally entitled to carry passengers, and has just lost the one thing that made every previous flight safer, which is somebody in the right seat. The regulations then set a low floor: a flight review every 24 calendar months under 14 CFR 61.56, and three takeoffs and landings in the preceding 90 days to carry passengers under 14 CFR 61.57.
Flying six hours a year and staying legal is entirely possible, and it is not the same thing as staying proficient. Anyone who tells you flight training is safe should also tell you that the habits you build during training are what carry you through that first year, and that the graduates who stay safe are the ones who keep flying regularly, keep flying with an instructor occasionally, and set personal minimums stricter than the legal ones.
How To Make Your Own Training Safer
Most of the variables are in your hands, which is unusual and worth taking advantage of.
- Fly often. Two lessons a week is safer than two a month, not just cheaper. Skill decay between lessons is the biggest single driver of both cost and risk in primary training.
- Say when you are not comfortable. An instructor cannot read your mind, and the student who says "I am behind the airplane" is giving the instructor the most useful information available.
- Be willing to cancel. If the weather looks marginal and your instructor is happy to go, you are still allowed to say no. A school that reacts badly to that is telling you something important.
- Learn the weather properly. Not to pass the written, but because two of the FAA's leading fatal causes are weather decisions. This is the subject that pays the highest safety dividend per hour of study.
- Take stalls and slow flight seriously. They are the antidote to the leading fatal cause. Ask to do more of them than the syllabus minimum, especially in turns and at approach speeds.
- Use the simulator for emergencies. A full-motion simulator lets you fly an engine failure at 400 feet after takeoff, badly, as many times as it takes, which is not something to practice in an aircraft. Our Redbird MCX does exactly this.
- Set personal minimums before you need them. Write down the crosswind, ceiling and visibility you will accept, while you are on the ground and unhurried, and then hold yourself to them.
What We Do About It
We are a Part 61 school at Van Nuys, and our approach to all of the above is set out in detail on safety at You Fly LA: maintenance intervals, student weather minimums stricter than the legal ones, stage checks with a second instructor, and a cancellation policy with no financial penalty so that nobody has a reason to fly a flight they should not.
Van Nuys itself helps. It is a Class D towered field under the Los Angeles Class B shelf with two parallel runways, which means positive air traffic control and a high volume of professional traffic. Learning in that environment produces pilots who are comfortable on the radio and used to being sequenced, which is a durable safety asset. It also has weather that lets you fly consistently, which is the single most effective thing a location can do for training safety.
Related Reading
- Are small planes safe — the FAA and NTSB data in full, with sources.
- Safety at You Fly LA — our maintenance, weather and training standards.
- Fear of flying: what it is and how pilots would fix it — if the worry is bigger than this page.
- Your first solo flight — what 14 CFR 61.87 requires before you fly alone.
- Learn to fly in Los Angeles — courses, prices and how training works here.
Is Learning To Fly Dangerous FAQ
Is Flight Training More Dangerous Than Driving?
General aviation as a whole carries more risk per flight hour than driving does per hour, but flight training sits at the conservative end of general aviation, and the comparison is sensitive to whether you measure per hour or per mile. The more useful point is that the risk in training is dominated by decisions that you and your instructor control.
What Is The Most Dangerous Part Of Learning To Fly?
Not the early lessons, which are the most supervised flying you will ever do. The phases that warrant attention are the transition to solo, which the FAA gates tightly under 14 CFR 61.87, and the first year after the checkride, when the instructor is gone and the legal currency floor is low.
What Happens If The Engine Fails During A Lesson?
The aircraft becomes a glider and descends at a shallow angle at a known speed. Your instructor picks a field, flies to it and runs the restart checks, and you will have practiced that exact procedure yourself, at safe altitude, repeatedly, well before you ever fly alone.
Can My Instructor Take Over If I Make A Mistake?
Yes, instantly and at any time. Training aircraft have dual controls, the instructor's hands are near them throughout, and intervening early is the core of the job. Most of what an instructor prevents you will never even notice happening.
Are Older Training Aircraft Safe?
Age is far less important than maintenance. An aircraft used for flight instruction for hire must receive an annual or 100-hour inspection within the preceding 100 hours of service under 14 CFR 91.409(b), which means a well-used trainer is opened up and examined several times a year by a licensed mechanic.
Do I Have To Do Stalls?
Yes, and you should want to. Loss of control in flight is the leading cause of fatal general aviation accidents, and stall recognition and recovery is the direct countermeasure. They are practiced deliberately, at safe altitude, with an instructor, and most students find them far less alarming than they expected.
Is There An Age Limit Or Fitness Requirement?
There is no upper age limit. You will need an FAA medical certificate for solo flight and for the private pilot certificate, issued by an aviation medical examiner. Nothing about ordinary fitness is a barrier to flight training.
Will A Busy Airport Like Van Nuys Make Training Riskier?
Generally the opposite. A Class D towered field means positive control, clear procedures and a defined traffic pattern, and pilots trained in that environment are noticeably more comfortable with radio work and sequencing than pilots trained at quiet uncontrolled fields.
Come And Ask An Instructor
Every question on this page is one we would rather answer in person than have you worry about. Book a free consultation and bring the list, or take a 60-minute discovery flight for $229 and ask in the air, where the answers are easier to see. Call (818) 330-1318 any day between 9 AM and 9 PM. We are at 7900 Balboa Blvd, Van Nuys, CA 91406.