To be fair, I think you would need to take out commercial planes... they kind of skew the results....
Yes, flying GA is more dangerous (statistically) than driving a car.
dm--congratulations! Here's my take on flying GA in order to actually get somewhere.
- If I don't have to be at the destination on a particular day, then it's a good way to go for distances up to about 800 miles. After that, it's worth it (time-wise and hassle-wise) to buy a commercial ticket unless the fun of flying there is part of the goal.
- If I
have to be at the destination on a particular day (for business, a wedding, etc), then flying an airplane might still work, but I need to have a backup plan in case the weather is bad. I don't have my IFR ticket, so that limits me. Even if I did, being "legal" for IFR and being proficient aren't the same thing. And there's no way I can afford a plane approved for known icing, so that's another limitation. If the weather is bad on the day I need to travel, then a walkup-ticket at the airlines is going to be very expensive, if it is available at all. Thus, my backup plan is always my car. That limits me to a 600 mile trip in one day. No matter how fast my private plane is, no matter how long I'd be willing to fly, the radius of action (for me, and for "gotta be there on Tuesday" events) will always be set by this 600 mile driving limit. Once I figured this out, the idea of a very fast plane, high horsepower, retracts, constant speed prop, etc kinda lost its allure and I'll probably choose something slower, cheaper, and more "fun" than fast. The difference between cruising at 150 MPH and 175 MPH just isn't that big a deal.
Again--congrats. It's fun to share the flight.