Flying Truths (including a few repeats)
It's better to be down here wishing you were up there, than up there
wishing you were down here, and If you're ever faced with a forced
landing at night, turn on the landing lights to see the landing
area. If
you don't like what you see, turn'em back off.
A check ride ought to be like a skirt, short enough to be
interesting but
still be long enough to cover everything. Speed is life, altitude
is life
insurance. No one has ever collided with the sky.
Always remember you fly an airplane with your head, not your hands,
and
never let an airplane take you somewhere your brain didn't get to five
minutes earlier.
Don't drop the aircraft in order to fly the microphone. An airplane
flies
because of a principle discovered by Bernoulli, not Marconi.
"Unskilled" pilots are always found in the wreckage with their hand
around the microphone.
If you push the stick forward, the houses get bigger; if you pull the
stick back, they get smaller. (Unless you keep pulling the stick
back-then they get bigger again.)
Hovering is for pilots who love to fly but have no place to go; the
only
time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire; flying is the
second0D
greatest thrill known to man, landing is the first!
Everyone already knows the definition of a 'good' landing is one from
which you can walk away. But very few know the definition of a 'great'
landing. It's one after which you can use the airplane another time.
The probability of survival is equal to the angle of arrival.
IFR: I Follow Roads.
You know you've landed with the wheels up when it takes full power to
taxi.
Those who hoot with the owls by night, should not fly with the
eagles by
day.
A helicopter is a collection of rotating parts going round and
round and
reciprocating parts going up and down - all of them trying to become
random in motion.
Helicopters can't really fly - they're just so ugly that the earth
immediately repels them.
Pilots believe in clean living. They never drink whiskey from a dirty
glass.
Things which do you no good in aviation: Altitude above you; Runways
behind you; Fuel in the truck; Half a second ago; Approach plates
in the
car; and Airspeed you don't have.
If God meant man to fly, He'd have given him more money.
Flying is not dangerous; crashing is very dangerous.
A good simulator check ride is like successful surgery on a corpse.
Asking what a pilot thinks about the FAA is like asking a tree what it
thinks about dogs.
Trust your captain but keep your seat belt securely fastened.
An airplane may disappoint a good pilot, but it won't surprise him.
Any pilot who relies on a terminal forecast can be sold the Brooklyn
Bridge. If he relies on winds-aloft reports he can be sold Niagara
Falls.
The friendliest flight attendants are those on the trip home.
Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad
judgment.
Being an airline pilot would be great if you didn't have to go on all
those trips.
Aviation is not so much a profession as it is a disease.
The nicer an airplane looks, the better it flies.
There are three simple rules for making a smooth landing.
Unfortunately,
no one knows what they are, but it's always a good landing if you can
still get the doors open.
Passengers prefer old captains and young flight attendants.
One thing worse than a captain who never flew as a copilot is a
copilot
who once was a captain. No matter which, it’s best to keep the pointed
end going forward as much as possible.
If an earthquake suddenly opened a fissure in a runway that caused an
accident, the FAA would find a way to blame it on pilot error.
Any attempt to stretch fuel is guaranteed to increase headwind.
A thunderstorm is never as bad on the inside as it appears on the
outside. It's much worse.
It's easy to make a small fortune in aviation. You have to start
with a
large fortune.
A male pilot is a confused soul who talks about women when he's
flying,
and about flying when he's with a woman.
A fool and his money are soon flying more airplane than he can handle.
The last thing every pilot does before leaving the aircraft after
making
a gear up landing is to put the gear selection lever in the 'down'
position.
Try to keep the number of your landings equal to the number of your
takeoffs, and remember takeoff's are optional, but landings are
mandatory.
You cannot propel yourself forward by patting yourself on the back.
