Brooke here is a comparison I like, sourced from the bowels of the internet, comparing flying to motorcycles:
Daytime flight over non-mountainous terrain: Like riding a motorcycle with full gear.
Daytime flight in instrument conditions or over mountainous terrain in clear air: Like riding a motorcycle with only a helmet.
Night flight over non-mountainous terrain: Like riding a motorcycle with a helmet but no headlight.
Night flight in instrument conditions over non-mountainous terrain: Like riding a motorcycle at night with a headlight but no helmet.
Night flight in instrument conditions over mountainous terrain: Like riding a motorcycle at night with no helmet, in the rain, over the speed limit.
Any flight in which the pilot says 'watch this sh*t' - Like riding a motorcycle at night with no helmet, over the speed limit, while drunk.
And here is a link to a safety video from John and Martha king, a very pertinent part starts at about 13:15:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHKbeT-EZHMI think it is safe to generalize that small autogyros and ultralights can be operated with reasonable risk the problem is that it isn't as easy to do that as it is with other kinds of GA flying machines, and it might mean limiting yourself to flying only over open fields on calm days. Faulty design or construction can also crop up in the fleet but there are no doubt designs with better track records so for a serious study of risk you would probably have to limit yourself to a single design with a history in order to come to any kind of useful conclusion as to what the risk factors are.
