It’s one of the things we macho pilots don’t like to talk about—incapacitation. We grouse about taking FAA medical exams or complying with BasicMed. Hey, we’re way to cool to worry about keeling over while motoring through the skies with our loved ones aboard.
The good news is that pilot incapacitation shows up as the cause of fewer than 1 percent of general aviation accidents—so the odds are good. The bad news is that incapacitation is generally tied to age and the average age of pilots is increasing—the goods are getting increasingly odd.