How do you deal with the sceptics - especially those close to you?
With many years of involvement in aviation - gliders, GA, hang-gliders, trikes - I have often been confronted by family, friends and colleagues with lots of less than positive views and opinions on the value of flying. You can tell that they are often thinking something like... "Why leave the perfectly good terra-firma in something that will at some stage come back down a lot harder than the way it lifted off...?"
And especially when we get news of another aviation accident - that seems to rate far higher in the newsworthy priority stakes than yet another fatal car accident.
I find myself cringing as the news emerges, thinking first - "Poor buggers", then - "I need to know what caused it, for the learning", and finally - "I hope it's not in the same category as what I'm currently flying..", as that will always generate the question "Is that the same as what you fly?" - in something approaching an accusatory, or even an 'I told you so' tone. (Not from my wife - at least she understands..).
I'm sure this is something that most of us have to deal with - so, again, how do you deal with the people around you when the news turns bad?
Cheers
Chris