Risk and Fear

Adam Hitchcox

Adam Hitchcox compares the risks incurred by a motorbike racer with those of a helicopter pilot.

The perception of risk is all in the mind, it is a peculiar thing and highly individual, what may be an acceptable risk to one pilot, will result in another not lifting for the day. How can certain people who are considered to be working in a challenging operating environment be in their comfort zone and yet others baulk at relatively straight forward environments?

I wanted to find out how different disciplines view risk and what drives these perceptions. I spent nine years racing motorcycles, the last two of which were in the British Superbike Championship as a Privateer. In 2004, I was involved in the highest profile racing accident for many years and was thrown at high speed through a 150ft long fireball, almost without injury, and yet it was not a frightening experience. I didn't, however, consider any of this to be high risk, in nine years I only broke a collar-bone, despite seventeen crashes in 2003.

Risk and fear were redefined for me when, in 2004, I resigned from my job and started training for my private pilot's licence, then my commercial. In November I experienced a totally new level of fear when by misjudgment and...