In video games and war movies, you often see glider pilots, and in Vietnam movies helicopter pilots, be wiped out in pretty much every combat mission, with a mortality of close to 100%.
Was the mortality rate really this high, or is this dramatic embellishment? Seems like an awful deterrent.
I couldn't find the exact numbers (maybe somebody with access to the National Archives can get that for you), but I can assure you that it is much, much lower than the movies would lead you to believe. That's not to say that it wasn't dangerous though.