.... Pilots and Flying
.... The only three things a wingman
should ever say are
3. As a pilot only two bad things can happen to you and one of
them is: 4. Any flight over water in a single engine airplane will absolutely guarantee abnormal engine noises and vibrations. 5. There are Rules and there are Laws. The rules are made by men who think that they know better how to fly your airplane than you. The Laws (of Physics) were made by the Great One. You can, and sometimes should, suspend the Rules but you can never suspend the Laws. 6. More about Rules 7. The pilot is the highest form of life on earth. 10. The medical profession is the natural enemy of the aviation profession. 11. The job of the chief pilot is to worry incessantly that his career depends solely on the abilities of his aviators to fly their airplanes without mishap and that their only minuscule contribution to the effort is to bet their lives on it. 12. Ever notice that the only experts who decree that the age of the pilot is over are people who have never flown anything? Also, in spite of the intensity of their feelings that the pilot's day is over I know of no such expert who has volunteered to be a passenger in a non-piloted aircraft. 13. It is absolutely imperative that the pilot be unpredictable. Rebelliousness is very predictable. In the end, conforming almost all the time is the best way to be unpredictable. 14. He who demands everything that his aircraft can give him is a pilot; he that demands one iota more is a fool. 15. If you're gonna fly low, do not fly slow! ASW pilots know
this only too well. 18. About night flying 20. At the end of the day, the controllers, ops supervisors, maintenance guys, weather guessers, and birds; they're all trying to kill you and your job is to not let them! 21. The concept of "controlling" airspace with radar is just a form of FAA sarcasm directed at pilots to see if they're gullible enough to swallow it. Or to put it another way, when's the last time the FAA ever shot anyone down? 22. Remember that the radio is only an electronic suggestion box
for the pilot. Sometimes the only way to clear up a problem is to
turn it off. 24. Remember when flying low and inverted that the rudder still works the same old way but hopefully your instructor never taught you "pull stick back, plane go up". 25. Mastering the prohibited maneuvers in the Natops Manual is one of the best forms of aviation life insurance you can get. 26. A tactic done twice is a procedure. (Refer to unpredictability discussion above) 27. The aircraft G-limits are only there in case there is another flight by that particular airplane. If subsequent flights do not appear likely, there are no G-limits. 28. One of the beautiful things about a single piloted aircraft is the quality of the social experience. 29. If a mother has the slightest suspicion that her infant might grow up to be a pilot, she had better teach him to put things back where he got them. 30. The ultimate responsibility of the pilot is to fulfill the dreams of the countless millions of earthbound ancestors who could only stare skyward and wish. |
- "Blue water Navy truism: There are more planes in the ocean than submarines in the sky." --From an old carrier sailor - "If the wings are traveling faster than the fuselage, it's probably a helicopter -- and therefore, unsafe." - "When one engine fails on a twin-engine airplane you always have enough power left to get you to the scene of the crash." |