cburg

Quotes

Last updated by cburg Comments (3)

“Pilots begin their journey in the sky with an individualistic fervor.  They guide the raw skill of flying by the personality that passing years, influences, and genetics have created.  Some are meek and timid, some are bold and prone to rash decisions.  These traits largely mirror who they are as people.  This is why the most dangerous of pilots are the newly minted…to little experience to know caution, too much to know fear.  But in truth, being a pilot defines us more that we define it.  As the years pass, a great homogenization occurs as experience teaches us the lessons of survival.  Where we may have come from largely disparate backgrounds, the school of flight leaves us as one possessing the knowledge of the ancients” – Jeff Skiles

Comments

  • John Fetz

    "When a Pilot runs out of Altitude , Airspeed & Experience, all at once he is in TROUBLE"

    Wiley Post,,,  1930's

  • cburg

    Here's around 1000 other flying quotes:

    http://www.rotaryforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39678

  • Tussock

    Here's one from Ernest K Gann's Fate Is The Hunter. This has had a profound influence on me, showing as it does that piloting is an art, and there is a joy to had not just in flying but flying well:

    '...Ross had developed a technique for handling the aeroplane during takeoff, landing and taxiing, which was in a class by itself. This was been begrudgingly admitted by other Captains. He often chose a triangular patch of grass between the forks of runways, sideslipping smoothly down with the engines cut full back, and setting the wheels precisely on the very tip of the triangle's apex. This he did so expertly it was frequently impossible to be sure the DC2 had contacted the earth. Nor would there be any further commotion of thumps and blasting engines. He would allow the landing roll to continue until the final, sensuous result was the the twelve-ton aeroplane eased to a halt exactly in line with the waiting ramp. Throughout the entire show, and it was nothing more than sheer display, a passenger could have held a brimming cup of coffee in his lap without spilling a drop. There was never any indication of effort or special concentration on Ross's face. He was at these moments always the true virtuoso, performing for his own joy, and so quite unaware of his audience.'

    - and from Flying Officer Pearson, quoted by Paul Brickhall in Reach For The Sky'

    'Never be brutal with your aeroplane. Guide it. Don't shove it.'

    - and from E.B. Jeppesen:

    'And let's get one thing straight. There's a big difference between a pilot and an aviator. One is a technician; the other is an artist in love with flight.'