A 150 can glide in with no power so easy you wouldn't believe it. As long as you have a field to put it in, there's no problem at all for even a student pilot to put it on the ground. That's why I'm not too fond of flying over a heavily congested area. If it sputters, it's tough to find a field.

That said, as long as you keep plenty of fuel on board, the chance of you ever having to do it for real is quite remote.

As I said earlier, if you keep plenty of fuel, don't fly into the clouds and don't do anything stupid, the chance of dying in a small plane is very slim. Things DO happen, however, to the best of planes and best of pilots just as they do in automobiles, motorcycles, etc.

The noise issue has always seemed quite interesting to me. There may be some airports that were built in the midst of a group of houses, but if so, a handful or less. People go and build a house in an airport traffic pattern, an airport that was already there, and THEN complain about the noise. The airport was there first folks.

BTW, sorry to hear about your Dad Chivito.