I only had about 400 hours flying before I quit. In that time I owned a plane that had 3 magnetos defective or replaced 1 failed in the air. Half a dozen stuck valves, 1 in the air. Had to replace two cylinders one which only had a few hundred hours on it. I knew of one injured. One my flight instructor who was injured when he had an engine go out during instruction, fortunately it was just a sprained foot. Another was killed in his banner tow. A few people I knew had close calles in IFR flight. I myself had a couple minor close calls due to bad weather. Another friend damaged an airplane in a hard landing due to poor piloting and heavy crosswind.

Sometime during early instrument training I found out through Aviation Consumer that the only thing more dangerous than flying IFR was skydiving. I think mountain climbing was safer and motorcycles safer than that. I quit IFR training right away, and flying altogether a year or so after that.

Now compare this, I had nothing but touble with maintenance when I owned an airplane, but since the only major problem I have had with a car was a transmission that went out, but it continued to run. I had a Caravan that never had its plugs replaced, just cleaned and gaped, and I sold it at 130,000+ miles. I have a lawn mower which I use about an hour and a half a week for 25 years, replace the plug only twice, never an ignition problem, no points to replace, and never has been overhauled. OK so now it burns oil and the choke won't completly close, so its hard to start cold, but IMO its built one hell of a lot better than any non turbine aircraft.