Zitate aus der Luftfahrt und von Piloten

#1

“Before you do something stupid up there, think of what everyone sitting down here will say about you after they read the accident report.” "Bevor du dort oben etwas Dummes tust, denke darüber nach, was jeder, der hier unten sitzt, über dich sagen wird, nachdem er den Unfallbericht gelesen hat."- Angus Kydd, Flight instructor

#3

We're born to pilot our own plane and explore the world,
not sit in the airport.
Wir sind dazu geboren, unser eigenes Flugzeug zu steuern und die Welt zu erkunden,
und nicht, um am Flughafen zu sitzen.

#5

You learn to know a pilot in a storm.
Man lernt den Piloten im Sturm kennen.
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

#7

The human brain is truly amazing. It functions 24 hours a day from the moment we are born and only stops when we have to figure out how to enter the hold.

#9

If it's not right
GO AROUND
It is better to explain why you did it.
Than for other to find out why you didn't.

#11

"We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training." - Archilochus

#13

Training is like fighting a gorilla. You don’t stop fighting when you are tired; you stop when the gorilla is tired.

#15

"That was some of the best flying I've seen to date - right up to the part where you got killed" - Lieutenant Commander Rick "Jester " Heatherly to Lieutenant Pete "Maverick" Mitchell at the Fighter Pilot Weapon School (known as TOP GUN)

#17

"It's not the plane, it's the pilot" - Maverick

#19

“Fighter pilots have ice in their veins. They don’t have emotions. They think, anticipate. They know that fear and other concerns cloud your mind from what’s going on and what you should be involved in.” - Buzz Aldrin.

#21

“One of the beautiful things about a single-piloted aircraft is the quality of the social experience.” - Richard Drury.

#23

"You've never lived till you've flown.” - Bessie Coleman

#25

"There is a kind of principle of the sky, a spirit of flight that calls to certain among mankind as the wilderness calls to some, and the sea to others." Richard Bach

#27

"He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying." — Friedrich Nietzsche

#29

“It’s congenital really. We're an aspiring species that doesn’t have wings. What else would we dream of?" — interview with pilot and aviation author, Mark Vanhoenacker

#31

"All the calculations show it can’t work. There’s only one thing to do: make it work." -Attributed to Pierre Georges Latécoère, early French aviation entrepreneur.

#33

"Built into the human psyche, we have this … desire for liberty. I think with many people the airplane becomes the metaphor for liberation, for the ultimate sense of freedom." - Rod Machado, interview in the documentary The Disciples of Flight, 2019.

#35

"To put your life in danger from time to time… breeds a saneness in dealing with day-to-day trivialities." - Nevil Shute

#37

"To a professional pilot ‘up there’ can eventually become ‘up here’, and the world where he lands is episodic, fragmentary. It happens to some earlier than others. Then, perhaps, he does something damnfool in the half-real world down below and he finds that being able to fly doesn’t make him one of the gods.
It isn’t new. It’s been happening to birds ever since cats."
- Gavin Lyall

#39

"Flying is like having a new lover. It’s so exciting." - Carol Vorderman

#41

"I proselytize about coordinated turns or utilizing adverse aileron yaw in crosswind landings. You know, stick-and-rudder skills, not swipe-right aeronautical distraction making." - Paul Berge

#43

"Being a good pilot is having the self awareness to realise you have done some shit, recognising it and being honest about it with yourself and others. Then setting an example that less experienced pilots can follow." Simon Wilson

#45

"And into the sky I go - to loose my mind and find my soul"

#47

"Life is simple. Eat, sleep, fly." anonymous

#49

"Any flying' job's better'n any non-flying' job." - Lloyd Baker, pilot instructor

#51

"There are old pilots and there are bold pilots. The trick in becoming an old pilot is knowing exactly when to be, and when not to be bold"- Dudley Henriques

#53

"Here’s the thing. Here’s the thing. I know being a cop is hard. I know that shit’s dangerous. I know it is, okay? But some jobs can’t have bad apples. Some jobs, everybody gotta be good. Like … pilots. Ya know, American Airlines can’t be like, “Most of our pilots like to land. We just got a few bad apples that like to crash into mountains. Please bear with us.” Chris Rock

#55

"Everyone has oceans to fly, if they have the heart to do it. Is it reckless? Maybe. But what do dreams know of boundaries?" - Amelia Earhart

#57

“He remembered a pilot telling him once, 'They pay us a hundred thousand dollars or more a year, Brian, and they really do it for just one reason. They know that in almost every pilot's career, there are thirty or forty seconds when he might actually make a difference. They pay us not to freeze when those seconds finally come.” ? Stephen King, One Past Midnight: The Langoliers

#59

“In soloing – as in other activities – it is far easier to start something than it is to finish it.” – Amelia Earhart

#61

“… all attempts at artificial aviation on the basis he describes are not only dangerous to human life, but foredoomed to failure from the engineering standpoint.” – London Times Engineering Editor’s response to a letter describing powered flight over London, 24 January 1906

#63

"There I was, fog was so thick I couldn't see the instruments. Only way I knew I was inverted was my flying medals were in my eyes. But I knew I was really in trouble when the tower called me and told me to climb and maintain field elevation." — Anonymous

#65

"Instrument flying is an unnatural act probably punishable by God." — Gordon Baxter

#67

"You won't spend much more than 10% of your time flying IMC but flying IFR is about flying with precision at all times." -- J. Mac McClellan, Writer, Flying

#69

"In life you are either a passenger or a pilot, it's your choise." - unkown

#71

"The most effective way to do it, is to do it." - Amelia Earhart

#73

"When a test pilot comes off a flight, there is typically another pilot who is going to take it up, and he believes in the debriefing. You don't keep something to yourself." - Walter Marty „Wally“ Schirra Jr., US-Testpilot und Astronaut

#75

"One of my great joys in life is being a pilot. There is a great sense of freedom in soaring through the sky. You get a different perspective up there. Seeing things that aren't so apparent from the ground." - Sonny Perdue

#77

"When I started at the Air Force Academy, I found out that I couldn't be a fighter pilot simply because I had ovaries. That was enough to make me go for it." - Martha McSally

#79

“I have seldom met an airplane I didn’t like.” - Clay Lacy

#81

“I learned a lot from hangar flying.” - Clay Lacy

#83

"Flying an airplane is a challenge. It tests your limits. You learn more about yourself being a pilot than anything else." - Michael Goulian

#85

I want to buy an airplane, but my wife Cess - Nah!

#87

"The focus and the concentration and the attention to detail that flying takes is a kind of meditation. I find it restful and engaging, and other things slip away." - Harrison Ford

#89

" Houston, we've had a problem here." Jim Lovell, Astronaut, Commander Apollo 13

#91

"Learning to fly an airplane taught me a way of thinking, an approach to problem-solving that was applicable and effective. Pilots are very methodical and meticulous, and artists tend not to be." - Chris Carter

#93

Nine-tenths confidence and one-tenth common sense equals successful aviator.

#95

We want the air to unite the peoples, and not to divide them. — Lord Swinton

#97

We humans are basically content with a two-dimensional world, which is what we’ve always occupied. We travel mostly on the ground, have traffic jams, parking problems , and we’d do a lot better to look up a little bit because there is that great aerial highway that’s always ready to go, you don’t have to pave it and the benefits are very great. — Paul MacCready, 'The Pioneers of Flight' episode, Discover Magazine TV show, 2000.

#99

Even before [we] . . . had reached 300 feet, I recognized that the sky would be my home. I tumbled out of the airplane with stars in my eyes. — Geraldyn Cobb, regards her first flight, piloted by her father when she was 12 years old.

#101

Everyone asks me 'how it feels to fly.' It feels like riding in a high powered automobile, minus bumping over the rough roads, continually signaling to clear the way and keeping a watchful on the speedometer to see that you do not exceed the speed limit and provoke the wrath of the bicycle policeman or the covetous constable. — Harriet Quimby.

#103

If you are a woman, and are coming to the flying field seeking stimulation, excitement and flattery, you had better stay away until flying is a little bit safer. If you are thinking that flying will develop character; will teach you to be orderly, well-balanced; will give you an increasingly wider outlook; discipline you, and destroy vanity and pride; enable you to control yourself more and more under all conditions; to think less of yourself and your personal problems, and more of sublimity and everlasting peace that dwell serene in the heavens - if you seek these latter qualities, and think on them exclusively, why - FLY! — Margery Brown,Flying magazine, 1929.

#105

Whether we call it sacrifice, or poetry, or adventure, it is always the same voice that calls. — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

#107

"Just try and remember," I said slowly," that if God had intended men to fly He'd have given us wings. So all flying is flying in the face of nature. It's unnatural, wicked and stuffed with risks all the time. The secret to flying is learning to minimize the risks."
"Or perhaps — the secret of life is to choose your risks?" — Gavin Lyall, 'Shooting Script,' 1966.

#109

I had that morning gone to say my farewells to Broadhurst and to the RAF. I had made a point of going to HQ at Schleswig in my 'Grand Charles.' Coming back I had taken him high up in the cloudless summer sky, for it was only there that I could fittingly take my leave. Together we climbed for the last time straight towards the sun. We looped once, perhaps twice, we lovingly did a few slow, meticulous rolls, so that I could take away in my finger-tips the vibration of his supple, docile wings. And in that narrow cockpit I wept, as I shall never weep again, when I felt the concrete brush against his wheels and, with a great sweep of the wrist, dropped him on the ground like a cut flower. As always, I carefully cleared the engine, turned off all the switches one by one, removed the straps, the wires and the tubes which tied me to him, like a child to his mother. And when my waiting pilots and my mechanics saw my downcast eyes and my shaking shoulders, they understood and returned to the dispersal in silence. — Pierre Clostermann, 'The Big Show (Fortunes of War)' 1951.

#111

Aviation is a Love Story that can Only Be lived through the Eyes of an Aviator.

#113

Flight is romance - not in the sense of sexual attraction, but as an experience that enriches life. — Stephen Coonts

#115

"Any pilot can describe the mechanics of flying. What it can do for the spirit of man is beyond description." - Barry Goldwater

#117

"There's simply no substitute for experience in terms of aviation safety." - Chesley Sully Sullenberger

#119

If you fail...I will always be there! -The Floor

#121

"But you remember one thing. You screw up just this much, you’ll be flying a cargo plane full of rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong." - CDR Tom "Stinger" Jordan aboard the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) to Lieutenant Pete "Maverick" Mitchell and Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Nick "Goose" Bradshaw

#123

Never trust a fuel gauge.

#125

Man kann in der Luftfahrt ein kleines Vermögen machen. Wenn man mit einem großen Vermögen startet.

#127

“Above all, the risk assessment is a tool to enhance safety. If it doesn’t accurately reflect the mission, it’s not working. (Vor allem ist die Risikobewertung ein Werkzeug zur Erhöhung der Sicherheit. Wenn es die Mission nicht genau wiedergibt, funktioniert es nicht.)" - Maj Curtis Alexander

#129

Here's to the men with greasy hands
Who fuel our planes when the pilot lands.
Who change the tires and oil the squeaks,
Fix the flak damage and stop the leaks.

Tend to the controls to make them fly straight,
Wait for the planes when the pilots are late.
Who smooth the scratches and rivet the panels,
Check "Loud and clear" on the radio channels.

Who read the write-ups and make the repairs,
Check the lines and wires for chafing and tears.
Who pull the chocks and walk the wings,
And do a million maint'nance things.

Who watch as the bird takes off and flies.
So here's a salute to those hard-working guys
From a group of flyers who seldom ponder
The men who keep us in the wild blue yonder.

#131

"Schaut zu den Sternen und nicht auf eure Füße" Stephen Hawking

#133

"Flying is a great equalizer. The plane doesn't know or care about your gender as a pilot, nor do the ground troops who need your support. You just have to perform. That's all anyone cares about when you're up there - that you can do your job, and that you do it exceptionally well." Lt. Col. Christine Mau 33rd Fighter Wing Operations Group deputy commander, and first female to fly the F-35

#135

I’m not a paranoid deranged millionaire. Goddamit, I’m a billionaire! -Howard Hughes

#137

A pilot who says he has never been frightened in an airplane is, I’m afraid, lying. — Louise Thaden

#139

Get rid at the outset of the idea that the airplane is only an air-going sort of automobile. It isn’t. It may sound like one and smell like one, and it may have been interior decorated to look like one; but the difference is—it goes on wings. — Wolfgang Langewiesche, first words of Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying, 1944

#141

Prepare for the unknown, unexpected and inconceivable … after 50 years of flying I’m still learning every time I fly. — Gene Cernan (last man on the moon)

#143

Better to hit the far fence at 10 knots than the close fence at VRef. — Captain Rick Davies, Chief Pilot, Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia (Queensland Section), advice given to new captains

#145

Great pilots are made not born. . . . A man may possess good eyesight, sensitive hands, and perfect coordination, but the end result is only fashioned by steady coaching, much practice, and experience. -- Air Vice-Marshal J. E. ‘Johnnie’ Johnson, RAF.

#147

Nobody who gets too damned relaxed builds up much flying time. -- Ernest K. Gann, describing advice from ‘a very old pelican of an aviator,’ ‘The Black Watch,’ 1989.

#149

I don’t want monitors here. I want pilots. . . . Our whole philosophy is that the pilot is in charge of the airplane. We’re very anti automation here at this airline. -- Greg Crum, System Chief Pilot Southwest Airlines, 1996

#151

Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm. -- Publius Syrus

#153

Accuracy means something to me. It’s vital to my sense of values. I’ve learned not to trust people who are inaccurate. Every aviator knows that if mechanics are inaccurate, aircraft crash. If pilots are inaccurate, they get lost—sometimes killed. In my profession life itself depends on accuracy. — Charles A. Lindbergh, ‘The Spirit of St. Louis,’ 1953

#155

You can always tell when a man has lost his soul to flying. The poor bastard is hopelessly committed to stopping whatever he is doing long enough to look up and make sure the aircraft purring overhead continues on course and does not suddenly fall out of the sky. It is also his bound duty to watch every aircraft within view take off and land. — Ernest K Gann

#157

The three rules to apply to your flying for greater safety (Mario’s Rules):

 
• Never assume you know it all, there is always more to learn and in fact, situations continually change so more study is essential.
 
• Always rely on standard operating procedures and a checklist. This is especially helpful when the fertilizer hits the fan.
 
• Always maintain a sense of wonder at what we accomplish daily as aviators when we defy gravity. A little fear is a good thing.

#159

"The flight is the reason, the destination is only an excuse!"

#161

Man must rise above the Earth—to the top of the atmosphere and beyond—for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives. — Socrates

#163

There is no sport equal to that which aviators enjoy while being carried through the air on great white wings. — Wilbur Wright, 1905

#165

Never stop being a kid. Never stop feeling and seeing and being excited with great things like air and engines and sounds of sunlight within you. Wear your little mask if you must to protect you from the world but if you let that kid disappear you are grown up and you are dead. — Richard Bach, 'Nothing by Chance,' 1963.

#167

There is no excuse for an airplane unless it will fly fast! — Roscoe Turner

#169

I'll run my hand gently over the wing of a small airplane and say to him, "This plane can teach you more things and give you more gifts than I ever could. It won't get you a better job, a faster car, or a bigger house. But if you treat it with respect and keep your eyes open, it may remind you of some things you used to know — that life is in the moment, joy matters more than money, the world is a beautiful place, and that dreams really, truly are possible." And then, because airplanes speak in a language beyond words, I'll take him up in the evening summer sky and let the airplane show him what I mean. — Lane Wallace, 'Eyes of a Child,' Flying magazine, February 2000.

#171

Pilots are a rare kind of human. They leave the ordinary surface of the word, to purify their soul in the sky, and they come down to earth, only after receiving the communion of the infinite. — José Maria Velasco Ibarra, President of Ecuador.

#173

The cockpit was my office. It was a place where I experienced many emotions and learned many lessons. It was a place of work, but also a keeper of dreams. It was a place of deadly serious encounters, yet there I discovered much about life. I learned about joy and sorrow, pride and humility, fear and overcoming fear. I saw much from that office that most people would never see. At times it terrified me, yet I could always feel at home there. It was my place, at that time in space, and the jet was mine for those moments. Though it was a place where I could quickly die, the cockpit was a place where I truly lived. — Brian Shul, 'Sled Driver; Flying The World's Fastest Jet,' 1992.

#175

All my life, I've never been able to get enough airplanes. This will keep me flying every day. — Astronaut Robert 'Hoot' Gibson, commander of four Space Shuttle missions, on his taking a job as a Southwest Airlines B-737 first officer, 1996.

#177

"I don't think I possess any skill that anyone else doesn't have. I've just had perhaps more of an opportunity, more of an exposure, and been fortunate to survive a lot of situations that many other weren't so lucky to make it. It's not how close can you get to the ground, but how precise can you fly the airplane. If you feel so careless with your life that you want to be the world's lowest flying aviator you might do it for a while. But there are a great many former friends of mine who are no longer with us simply because they cut their margins to close." - Bob Hoover

#179

I might have been born in a hovel but I am determined to travel with the wind and the stars. Jacqueline Cochran

#181

'When a prang seems inevitable, endeavour to strike the softest, cheapest object in the vicinity, as slowly and gently as possible.' - advice given to RAF pilots during W.W.II.

#183

'Keep thy airspeed up, lest the earth come from below and smite thee.' - William Kershner

#185

"The LEAST experienced press on where the MORE experienced turn back to join the MOST experienced - who never left the ground in the first place." - unknown

#187

"Nothing said I had to crash" - RA Bob Hoover

#189

"Mistakes are inevitable in aviation, especially when one is still learning new things. The trick is to not make the mistake that will kill you."

#191

"If you find yourself in trouble (in a cloud, for example), take a sip of coffee. There's no situation you can't make worse by being too hasty."

#193

In aviation, a little paranoia is healthy.

#195

'It occurred to me that if I did not handle that the crash correctly, there would be no survivors.' - Richard Leakey, after engine failure in a single engine, Nairobi, Africa, 1993

#197

"Keep the aeroplane in such an attitude that the air pressure is directly in the pilot's face." - Horatio C. Barber, 1916

#199

"If you want to grow old as a pilot you've got to know when to push it, and when to back off." - Chuck Yeager

#201

“Man is not as good as a black box for certain specific things; however he is more flexible and reliable. He is easily maintained and is easily manufactured by relatively unskilled labor.” —Wing Commander H.P. Ruffell Smith, RAF, 1949

#203

(privat) flying comes at a price, but life is for living...

#205

‘If there is a crisis in flight planning, then it’s GPS that’s the culprit,’ a chief flying instructor (CFI) with a university-linked flying training organisation says

#207

Je höher wir uns erheben, um so kleiner erscheinen wir denen, welche nicht fliegen können. - Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

#209

"My soul is in the sky." - William Shakespeare

#211

"Aviation is proof, that given the will, we have the capacity to achieve the impossible." - Eddie Rickenbacker

#213

Flying an aeroplane with only a single propeller to keep you in the air. Can you imagine that? Jean-Luc Picard, Captain U.S.S. Enterprise D

#215

Flying is the second-greatest thrill on earth. Landing is the first.

#217

Helicopter: 10,000 spare parts flying in close formation.

#219

If you can't leave your worries at home, stay there with them.

#221

Before attempting to beat the odds, be sure you can can survive the odds beating you.

#223

"If you wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down." Toni Morrison

#225

"Experience is a jewel, and it has need to be, for it often bought at the ultimate price!" - Shakespeare

#227

"Asking someone why they love to fly is almost like asking someone why they like Picasso. The beauty is the fact that you can't really describe it; it's something you have to behold." - Barry Schiff, aviation safety expert / pilot

#229

"Wer am höchsten fliegt, sieht am weitesten" - RICHARD BACH in DIE MÖWE JONATHAN

#231

"Experience is a hard teacher. First comes the test, then the lesson."

#233

"Don't drop the aircraft in order to fly the microphone."

#235

Three things kill young pilots in Alaska - weather, weather, and weather.

#237

“Let's get one thing straight. There's a big difference between a pilot and an aviator. One is a technician and the other is an artist in love with flight” - Elrey Jeppesen

#239

”Final is clear… Check the GEAR!!!”

#241

"If you wish to have an eventful, exciting flight, don’t prepare for it, don’t brief situations and responsibilities, and don’t plan on things changing on you...
But for those of us who prefer to keep things boring and uneventful, I recommend that you fly like you train, expect the unexpected, and have a backup plan."
„Wenn Sie einen ereignisreichen, aufregenden Flug wünschen, bereiten Sie sich nicht darauf vor, briefen sie keine Situationen und Verantwortlichkeiten und planen Sie nicht, dass sich Dinge ändern können ...
Aber für diejenigen unter uns die es vorziehen die Dinge beim Fliegen langweilig zu halten empfehle ich, zu Fliegen wie Sie es gelernt haben, das Unerwartete zu erwarten und einen Plan B zu haben."
— Lt. Trever Garabedian-Prophet, HSL-49

#243

'To most the sky is the limit....for pilots it is home!'

#245

"Any occurrence requiring undivided attention will be accompanied by a compelling distraction." — Robert Bloch, American Author

#247

"Flashlights are tubular metal containers kept in a flight bag for the purpose of storing dead batteries." - unkown

#249

A smooth landing is mostly luck. Two in a row is all luck. Three in a row is provocation.

#251

The probability of survival is inversely proportional to the angle of arrival. Large angle of arrival, small probability of survival and vice versa.

#253

Equipment problems that go away by themselves will come back by themselves.

#255

If no liquids (such as fuel, oil, grease or hydraulic fluid) are leaking out of an aircraft, it's safe to say there are none within.

#257

Never fly in the same cockpit with someone braver than you.

#259

After over a half a century of flying I can not remember even one trip that I refused to do that resulted in someone getting killed because of my decision not to fly.

#261

"Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn't know that so it goes on flying anyway." Mary Kay Ash

#263

"May your flying be safe and may the wonder of it never fail to inspire you."

#265

"Airspeed, altitude or brain - you need at least two of them." unkown

#267

A smooth touchdown in a simulator is as exciting as kissing your sister.

#269

Flying is not Nintendo. You don't push a button and start over.

#271

"What is chiefly needed is skill rather than machinery." - Wilbur Wright, 1902

#273

"Any idiot can get an airplane off the ground, but an aviator earns his keep by bringing it back anytime, anywhere, under any circumstances that man and God can dream up." - Walter Cunningham, 'The All-American Boys,' 1977."

#275

"I've never seen an airplane yet that can read the type ratings on your pilot's license."- Chuck Boedecker

#277

"The happily married man with a large family is the test pilot for me."- Nevil Shute

#279

"Just remember, if you crash because of weather, your funeral will be held on a sunny day."- Layton A. Bennett

#281

"They will pressure you into doing things that may be unsafe, use your good judgment, and remember, 'I would rather be laughed at, than cried for.' "- George MacDonald

#283

"A pilot who doesn't have any fear probably isn't flying his plane to its maximum."- Jon McBride, astronaut

#285

"Any landing you can walk away from is a good one!"- Gerald R. Massie

#287

"I could be president of Sikorsky for six months before they found me out, but the president would only have my job for six seconds before he'd kill himself."- Walter R. 'Dick' Faull, test pilot.

#289

There is no reason to fly through a thunderstorm in peacetime.- Sign over squadron ops desk at Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, 1970

#291

"Bei der Eroberung des Weltraums sind zwei Probleme zu lösen: die Schwerkraft und der Papierkrieg. Mit der Schwerkraft wären wir fertig geworden." Wernher von Braun

#293

"We who fly, do so for the love of flying. We are alive in the air with this miracle that lies in our hands and beneath our feet" - Cecil Day Lewis -

#295

"No one can realize how substantial the air is, until he feels its supporting power beneath him. It inspires confidence at once." - Otto Lilienthal

#297

"After about 30 minutes I puked all over my airplane. I said to my self, Man, you made a big mistake." - Charles 'Chuck' Yeager, regards his first flight.

#299

"Aeronautics was neither an industry nor a science. It was a miracle." - Igor Sikorsky

#301

I ask people who don't fly, "How can you not fly when you live in a time in history when you can fly?" - William Langewische, 2001

#303

"If you were born on an airliner in the US in this decade and never got off you would encounter your first fatal accident when you were 2300 years of age and you would still have a 29% chance of being one of the survivors." - Les Lautman, Safety Manager Boeing Commercial Airplane Company, 1989.

#305

Never fly the 'A' model of anything. - Ed Thompson

#307

There are three simple rules for making a smooth landing. Unfortunately no one knows what they are.

#309

Every takeoff is optional. Every landing is mandatory.

#311

Those who hoot with the owls by night should not fly with the eagles by day.

#313

"Mr. Dalton was the prime example of people who've flown airplanes for a long calendar time and perhaps many hours, but who failed to absorb any new knowledge [""Don't tell me about that - I have over 10.000hours."" No, he has 1 hour, 10.000 times] Apparently, the long experince had let him down, because he was quite pale"" - from ""Logging Flight Time" by William K. Kershner

#315

"The airport runway is the most important main street in any town" - Norm Crabtree, former aviation director of Ohio

#317

"Yes sir Admiral, I did hear your lecture last night on fighter pilot image...but right after your lecture sir...we had this party!!!" Dudley Henriques

#319

"Nicht einmal in tausend Jahren wird es der Menschheit gelingen, zu fliegen." Wilbur Wright, 1901

#321

Gravity, it's not just a good idea, it's the law.

#323

Assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups.

#325

Nothing flies without fuel, so let's start with some coffee.

#327

The F-4F Phantom II- living proof that if you put enough engine on something . . . even a brick could fly.

#329

Flying the airplane is more important than radioing your plight to a person on the ground incapable of understanding it.

#331

In days gone by, I've proved my worth
By zooming low across the earth.
I've buzzed the valleys and the mountain ridges,
I've dove my craft beneath the bridges.
I've looped and spun and rolled my wings,
I've sung the songs that pilots sing.
I've tried most stunts, it must be said,
Yet never learnt to use my head.
So here's a toast - To you and me!
But you drink both, I'm dead...you see.

#333

"Truly superior pilots are those who use their superior judgment to avoid those situations where they might have to use their superior skills." Frank Borman, Commander Gemini 7, Apollo 8, President Eastern Airlines

#335

"Once you have learned to fly your plane, it is far less fatiguing to fly than it is to drive a car. You don't have to watch every second for cats, dogs, children, lights, road signs, ladies with baby carriages and citizens who drive out in the middle of the block against the lights. . . . Nobody who has not been up in the sky on a glorious morning can possibly imagine the way a pilot feels in free heaven." William T. Piper, president of Piper Aircraft Corporation.

#337

"Dad, I left my heart up there." Francis Gary Powers, CIA U-2 pilot shot down over the Soviet Union, describing his first flight at age 14.

#339

"It's the most exciting thing you have ever done with your pants on!" Stephen Coonts, 'Flight of the Intruder'

#341

"They say it's better than sex. It's so much better. It's amazing." Angelina Jolie, pilot and actress, regards flying

#343

"That's what we're trained to do." Chesley B. 'Sully' Sullenberger III, Captain of US Airways flight 1549. The A320 ditched in the Hudson River with no loss of life. The 'New York Times' reported on 16 January 2009 that he, "had just performed a remarkable feat of flying. Some were calling it a miracle. But there he stood, calmly, inside the glass waiting room at the New York Waterway terminal on Pier 79, speaking to police officials. His fine gray hair was unruffled, and his navy blue pilots uniform had barely a wrinkle." 15 January 2009.

#345

"I was always afraid of dying. Always. It was my fear that made me learn everything I could about my airplane and my emergency equipment, and kept me flying respectful of my machine and always alert in the cockpit." Chuck Yeager