The Killing Zone, 2nd Edition: How and Why Pilots Die

While this book isn't groundbreaking in any way, it could potentially provide a useful review of common safety issues facing low time pilots. However, as others have pointed out, the book is marred by factual errors, numerous grammatical and spelling mistakes, and generally poor structure and editing. By halfway through the book, it had become a struggle to continue reading. I finally quit when I came to the section on aeromedical issues where I encountered the assertion that "when a medication gets into the bloodstream, it takes up space and limits the amount of oxygen that can be carried by the blood." I am a pilot, a physician, and a former U.S. Navy flight surgeon -- I can assure you that sentence betrays a complete lack of understanding of pharmacology and physiology.Rather than purchasing this book, I think your time is better spent watching the Air Safety Institute's Accident Case Study video series on the web. Plus, those are free, and many of them offer FAA Wings credit.

This book is just a collection of NTSB reports with some paragraphs in between. The problem is that the author has multiple grammatical errors and typos in the book, and skips from subject to subject while discussing specific topics. There are many errors in logic and multiple statements that contradict each other. For example on page 105, the author says "Holding the brakes does not shorten the ground roll" and then later in the same paragraph "Having full power when the brakes are released... will reduce the ground roll." For the price, I found this book poorly written and very poorly put together.

Page 14 gives GA accident rate at 2.32 deaths per 100,000 hours. Given the books average of 150 mph would lead to an accident rate of 2.32 deaths per 15,000,000 miles. Convert that to a million miles and you have 0.155 deaths for every million miles. Compared to 1.41 for ground vehicles and General Aviation is 10 times safer. If one takes the ground vehicle number and uses 30mph to convert to hours they would find a fatality rate of 4.23 deaths for every 100,000 hours in a ground vehicle. Still showing ground transportation about twice as deadly. If curious, the airlines are 10 times safer then GA if you use 400mph average. The poor math in the book makes a great scary headline but untrue. As a flight instructor I am looking for information to give students to send them out and not make deadly mistakes. I hoping to find that in this book as I continue but its credibility to manage statistics is in serious doubt.

As a non-pilot, I purchased this at a request from my student pilot son, and got hooked while reading the first chapter.It's full of statistics and perspectives as the author examines the reasons why newbie pilots with fewer than 1000 hours of flight time are more likely to crash. Each category of crash has its own chapter with helpful advice from a seasoned flight instructor.Most chapters have a few case histories that demonstrate the kind of conditions and decisions that can combine to result in crashes. Along the way he discusses in a most accessible fashion some airplane-unique problems, such as water in fuel tanks, flying in instrument meteorological conditions, night flying, and how to deal with failed instruments and engines. I learned why steeply banked turns are so dangerous, why carburetor icing is a common problem, and some techniques to use when landing in crosswinds.The second edition includes data from 2000 to 2011, adding to the original edition's data from 1983 to 1999. It will be time for a new edition soon.

KnechteWithin this book there are many good point to ponder and to make one a better pilot . However his use of accident numbers versus accident rates within a group of pilots is incorrect and negates the premise of the title. This is better explained by William Knechte in his comments.

I read that book while waiting for my approval as a foreign student pilot. The ppl instruction facility had a developed redbird fmx flight simulator and the instructor offered a ride before I signed for the course. He uploaded a simple approach scenario and asked me to land the plane. I tried my best while he was pointing the instruments and throttle. I played ms flight sim decades ago and forgot many things. I landed the plane but missed the runway. During the descent I was thinking " this is wrong, I will miss the runway, I have to abort and try again" but there was some other candidate waiting to play with the thing, and I pressed on. After I read that book, I understand again, that, if you are the pilot in command,you have to carry the responsibility of the decisions. You can't let any stress alter doing the right thing to do.

I bought this book to give a pilot friend of mine. He is a recently licensed sport pilot and flies a light tail dragger. I bought this book for his Christmas present and he loved it. It details many aviation disasters and their causes as determined by the National Transportation Safety Board. My hope was that by reading of mistakes made by other pilots he would learn not to make similar mistakes. Quality bound book.

As a very new student pilot, just at the front edge of the Zone, I can't describe how valuable I found this book. I marked sections on nearly every page which I continue to pour over... and have counseled with my CFI on much of it. The perspective this book provides on managing risk and remaining humble and teachable throughout one's development as a pilot is priceless. I wish I could sit with the author and pick his brain for several hours -

This was one of those books you can read in a single sitting. The author has clearly attempted to write a book that is engaging and interesting, but also full of facts. He has succeeded very well.Other reviews have criticised the statistics: that the author does not take into account that some (or most) of the apparent ‘killing zone’ effect - with most accidents happening to pilots with <300 hours - is due to the fact that there are simply more low hours pilots. Every pilot is a low-hours pilot at first: only some pilots go on to become high-hours pilots (and not only because they die: lots just give up flying).However, even taking that into account, this book makes valuable reading. The author goes through the major causes of accidents, how they come about and how they might be avoided, together with useful things for pilots to know in order not to become another statistic. And he does this in down-to-earth language that makes the book a pleasure, rather than a chore, to read. He obviously has his own particular hobby-horses in the matter of how pilots should be trained, but that doesn’t detract from the value of this book.Highly recommended.

Really useful book and one I would recommend. The title however is a bit dramatic and being a recently qualified pilot doesn't ease my wives concerns when she sees me reading a book with this title related to flying. A title more like, idiot pilots killing themselves and their mistakes ,would be more appropriate, as the majority of the accidents in here are just irresponsible behaviour by pilots new and old, which was reassuring. If you avoid some of areas pointed out in the book and are thorough in your flight preparation and flying you substantially reduce your risk. I would have given it 5 stars, but I think there were too many examples of accidents in the book driving the point home and after a while I was getting a bit jaded reading flight fatalities. As a UK pilot some of the US acronyms tool some getting use to, but other than that , it's a useful book and any book that makes you think twice before you go flying and double check your readiness is a good thing.

I am a very experienced pilot. This book is very useful to me and interesting. Highly recommended, especially for new pilots.

This should be essential reading to obtain your PPL.... buy it now!

Read all of it. Lots to learn and examples throughout. Will save lives.