There is a reason why the small regionals I usually fly with, reportedly hire pilots with a minimum of 1300-1500 hours.
They are called Insurance Companies !
So statistics affirm my experience? Who would have thought?
As for the part about becoming invincible, I would expect you are very correct since so many of the good, older pilots have tales- if you ever are privileged to hear them open the old film cans of memory- about a 'blip' or two in their relatively early flying careers. There must be something about 'learning from experience' that rings true as so many of these guys are such solid, reliable pilots in later years....the ones that survive that is.
And then I think about fellows like the company pilot who we flew with many times, who had flown a group of school board members to a meeting one afternoon. Nearing the meeting's adjournment, he left to get the plane readied for the return flight. When his passengers arrived sometime later, they found their pilot dead from cardiac failure.
