Aviation Quote of the Month:  

A superior pilot uses his superior judgment to avoid situations
which require the use of his superior skills.
~Frank Borman - Apollo 8

Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. But to an even greater degree
than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect.
~Captain A. G. Lamplugh, London, 1930's

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, 'Fate is the Hunter'

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

Flying makes me feel like a sex maniac in a whorehouse with a stack of $20 bills
~Pancho Barnes

It's Bernoulli not Marconi that flies the airplane.
~Ralph Royce, Airshow boss

They cashed in their horses for choppers and went tear assin' around the Nam looking for the shit.
~ (Apocalypse Now)

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

Nobody who gets too damned relaxed builds up much flying time.
~Ernest K. Gann, advice from the "old pelican."

What kind of man would live where there is no daring? I don't believe
in taking foolish chances, but nothing can be accomplished without
taking any chance at all.
~Charles A. Lindbergh

Airshow flying is tough, it's even tougher if you do something stupid.
Don't do nuthin dumb!
~Ralph Royce, Airshow boss

The J3 Cub is the safest airplane in the world; it can just barely kill you.
~Max Stanley, Northrop test pilot

I ask for your patience and understanding in advance. We here at Whiteman AFB
are in the business of hunting down and destroying America's enemies, not putting
on Air shows. Further, the protection of the B-2 bomber, a strategic national asset,
presents unique considerations for an Air show, and will undoubtedly affect what
you may consider "normal air show operations". I have absolutely no doubts about
our ability to put on a safe and thrilling air show that is both entertaining and that
highlights our Air Force's combat capabilities, however you may not be able to fly
as close to the crowd line as you would like and there may be limitations on what
are "normal operations" - nothing that we do differently however will compromise
safety in and regard - if you feel differently, please bring it up ASAP.
~Aaron J. Franklin, Major, USAF & Wings Over Whiteman 2010 Airboss

When a prang seems inevitable, endeavor to strike the softest,
cheapest object in the vicinity, as slowly and gently as possible.
~advice given to RAF pilots during WWII

The length of debate about a flight maneuver is always inversely
proportional to the complexity of maneuver. Thus if the flight
maneuver is simple enough, debate approaches infinity.
~Robert Livingston, "Flying The Aeronca"

There's a lot of Hollywood bullshit about flying. I mean, look at the
movies about test pilots or fighter pilots who face imminent death.
The controls are jammed or something really important has fallen
off the plane, and these guys are talking like magpies; their lives are
flashing past their eyes, and they're flailing around the cockpit. It
just doesn't happen. You don't have time to talk. You're too damn
busy trying to get out of the problem you're in to talk or ricochet
around the cockpit. Or think about what happened the night of
your senior prom.
~Brigadier General Robin Olds, USAF

When asked by someone how much money flying takes:
Why, all of it!
~ Gordon Baxter

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.
~E. B. Jeppesen

Flexible is much too rigid, in aviation you have to be fluid.
~Verne Jobst

There are no accidents and no fatal flaws in the machines: there are only
pilots with the wrong stuff.
~Tom Wolfe, 'The Right Stuff'

Without my airplane I am an ordinary man, and a useless one - a trainer without
a horse, a sculptor without marble, a priest without a god. Without an airplane I
am a lonely consumer of hamburgers...
~Richard Bach

Never fly in the cockpit with someone braver than you.
~Richard Herman Jr.

An airplane might disappoint any pilot but it'll never surprise a good one.
~Len Morgan

You'll be bothered from time to time by storms, fog, snow. When you are, think of those
who went through it before you, and say to yourself, "what they could do, I can do.
~Antoine de Saint Exupery, "Wind Sand, and Stars," 1939

The quality of the box matters little. Success depends upon the man who sits in it.
~Baron Manfred von Richthofen, AKA The Red Baron

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

The only time an aircraft has too much fuel on board is when it is on fire.
~Sir Charles Kingsford Smith

Always keep an 'out' in your hip pocket.
~Bevo Howard

If an airplane is still in one piece, don't cheat on it. Ride the bastard down.
~Ernest K, Gann, advice from an the "old pelican," 'The Black Watch'

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

Keep thy airspeed up, less the earth come from below and smit thee.
~William Kershner

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.
~General Chuck Yeager

"Are you ever afraid when you fly?"
That's a good question. Yeah. I'm always a little afraid when I fly. That's what makes me so damn good. I've seen pilots
who weren't afraid of anything, who would forget about checking their instruments, who flew by instinct as though they
were immortal. I've pissed on the graves of those poor bastards too. The pilot who isn't a little bit afraid always screws
up and when you screw up bad in a jet, you get a corporal playing taps at the expense of the government.
~Lieutenant Colonel Bull Meecham, USMC, in Pat Conroy's book, The Great Santini

When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been,
and there you will always long to return.
~Author Unknown

Aviation is proof, that given the will, we have the capacity to achieve the impossible.
~Captain Edward Rickenbacker

You haven't seen a tree until you've seen its shadow from the sky.
~Amelia Earhart

There is an art, or rather a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.
~ Douglas Adams, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

Both optimists and pessimists contribute to our society. The optimist invents the airplane and the pessimist the parachute.
~ Gil Stern

I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things.
~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Fly the thing as far into the crash as possible.
~Bob Hoover

The desire to fly is an idea handed down to us by our ancestors who, in their grueling travels across trackless lands in
prehistoric times, looked enviously on the birds soaring freely through space, above all obstacles, on the infinite highway of the air.
~ Wilber Wright

There is one thing that I can promise you about the outer-space program - your tax dollar will go further.
~ Werner von Braun

If black boxes survive air crashes, why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff?
~George Carlin

I pick the prettiest part of the sky and I melt into the wing and then into the air, till I'm just a soul on a sunbeam.
~Richard Bach