Pilot Wisdom

Fuel in the tanks is limited. Gravity is forever.

PPPPPP: Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance

The uglier an aircraft looks, the shittier it flies

Some pilots will make an emergency out of a bad magneto check. Others, upon losing a wing, will ask for a lower altitude.

Any comment about how well things are going is an absolute guarantee of trouble in aviation is the next 30 seconds. Long term planning is an hour and a half.

The three most common phrases in airline aviation are "Was that for us?" "What'd he say?" and "Oh Shit!" . Since computers are now involved in flying, a new one has been added: "What's it doing now?"

Unable to control altitude Unable to control airspeed Unable to control heading Other than that, everything is A-OK!

In war, everyone is a casualty, and collateral damage is really the only kind of damage. RIP MH17 passengers and crew.

If your flight is progressing remarkably well; something was forgotten.

You can land anywhere once.

It isn't the fall that kills you, nor the sudden stop at the bottom. It's the sudden realization that, yes indeed, you were that fucking stupid.

"You don't get anywhere if you don't push the envelope."

Basic Flying Rules: Try to stay in the middle of the air. Do not go near the edges of it. The edges of the air can be recognized by the appearance of ground, buildings, sea, trees and interstellar space. It is much more difficult to fly there.

In the ongoing battle between objects made of aluminum going hundreds of mile per hour and the ground going zero miles per hour, the ground has yet to lose.

A checkride ought to be like a skirt, short enough to be interesting but still be long enough to cover everything.

If flying were the language of man, soaring would be its poetry.