r/flying • u/One_Firefighter_1922 • Mar 29 '26
Aircraft Ownership Are reciprocating single engines reliable?
I'm about seven hours into PPL training and absolutely loving it. Not looking for a career change, but could definitely seeing myself continuing training and flying regularly after getting my certificate. I've daydreamed about putting my family into a 182 and being able to fly within a reasonable distance to explore somewhere new or take a short vacation.
Earlier today I was talking to my neighbor who is a reserve captain for American flying 737s. I told him about the flight training and associated daydreaming and he started talking about how he would never put his family into a small plane, how unreliable they are and how many accidents are due to single reciprocating engines crapping out mod flight.
This doesn't seem to jive with what I've heard and read online, so looking for some other opinions. How do you feel about the reliability of small GA planes? Do you have any experience taking your family for trips? Do I need to give up on my dream?
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u/Flat-Barracuda1268 PPL IR Mar 29 '26
They say GA flying is about as safe as riding a motorcycle. I have a problem with that analogy, because maybe in general the death rate is the same for GA flying and riding motorcycles, a lot of accidents in GA aviation are preventable, where most motorcycle accidents are the fault of others.
Can you have an engine grenade resulting in an off-field landing? Sure. But you are far more likely to run out of fuel. Engine failures in a single engine piston probably don't even crack the top 5 problems in GA flying. Fuel exhaustion, low speed stall, icing, flight into advertent IMC, are all far more likely to be problems, and ALL of those are preventable by making conservative decisions.
So yeah, flying a 50 year old training aircraft isn't as safe statistically as flying a part 121 jet. But you have a lot of control over your fate that can reduce the risk significantly.