Do air shows hurt general aviation… absolutely not. How many general aviation pilots fostered the urge to learn to fly at a young age after watching an air show? How many of our fine military pilots fostered their urge to ‘join up’ after veiwing the snowbirds at a young age? (I could go on)

Yes… people have died in our industry and yes, that has had negative impact; but that negetive impact has been far outweighed by posetive. Having performed shows for the past several years I have had the opportunity of speaking with many of our spectators. The general consensus is that performing is dangerous, and the public is fully aware of that. If a pilot is to ‘thunder in’ at an air show, the public uderstands that that pilot was there, intentionally putting himself/herself at risk. News reports of the Caravan 208 that crashes carrying 6 passengers has a far greater negative impact to GA than an accident at an air show.

As for your opinion of air show safety….
Not only am I a performer, but an occupational health and safety inspector in the upstream petroleum industries. The cockpit of my aircraft during any flight (performance or otherwise) is my workplace. With that, the principles of workplace safety apply.

As in any workplace, In order to fly I must understand my equipment, understand my SOP’s, and understand my emergency preparedness. Can I say that I perform a safe routine… absolutely not! Safety is defined as absence of risk… and by simple definition, absence of risk is impossible.

The key then, as any other workplace is risk management. As you’ve illustrated in your opening paragraph, mistakes and/or bad decisions can and have been made with disasterous consequences.

Years ago (post WWII) the concept of safety and risk management was unheard of. As a result, regulations were put in place to enhance public safety. These regulations have grown over the years and further enhanced the safety of air shows (see CAR’s Special Aviation Events). Furthermore, the industry itself has enhanced safety through the current ACE (AirShow Competency Evaluation) program. (in order to perform, a pilot must hold an ACE card) Every accident is evaluated by the industry ACE committee and further safety requirements are put in place.

Can accidental death in the air show industry be irradicated completely… Sadly, no; but it can be minimized.

Yes, there have been deaths. But to address the general message of your post; the public are still flying in record numbers and the public are still attending air shows. As what you call a GA ambassador, the only venue I have available to promote aviation as a whole is at an air show. The same as Al Pietsch did for me when I was 11.

An exception, of course, is people who live in communities that rely on general aviation for their day-to-day existence, like most far northern Canadian communities past the end of the roads. For them, flying in a small plane is probably about as exciting as taking the bus (actually, a bus would be much more exciting, since it’s unusual).