Flying.....non-motorcycle
Flying Truisms.......some of these could even apply to motorcycle riding.
Every takeoff is optional. Every landing is mandatory.
Flying isn't dangerous. Crashing is what's dangerous.
It's always better to be down here wishing you were up there than up there wishing you were down here.
The propeller is just a big fan in front of the plane used to keep the pilot cool. When it stops, you can actually watch the pilot start sweating.
A 'good' landing is one from which you can walk away. A 'great' landing is one after which they can use the plane again.
There are three simple rules for making a smooth landing. Unfortunately no one knows what they are.
A smooth landing is mostly luck; two in a row is all luck; three in a row is prevarication.
Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make all of them yourself.
Stay out of clouds. The silver lining everyone keeps talking about might be another airplane going in the opposite direction. Reliable sources also report that mountains have been known to hide out in clouds.
The three most common expressions (or famous last words) in aviation are: "Why is it doing that?" "Where are we?" and "Oh, shit!"
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.
Keep thy airspeed up, lest the Earth come from below and smite thee.
You can always tell a helicopter pilot in anything moving: a train, an airplane, a car or a boat. They never smile, they are always listening to the machine and they always hear something they think is not right. Helicopter pilots fly in a mode of intensity, actually more like "spring loaded", while waiting for pieces of their ship to fall off.
Flying a helicopter at any altitude over 500 feet is considered reckless and should be avoided.
Flying a helicopter at any altitude or condition that precludes a landing in less than 20 seconds is considered outright foolhardy.
"The thing is, helicopters are different from planes. An airplane by its nature wants to fly, and if not interfered with too strongly by unusual events or by an incompetent pilot, it will fly. A helicopter does not want to fly. It is maintained in the air by a variety of forces and controls working in opposition to each other, and if there is any disturbance in this delicate balance the helicopter stops flying; immediately and disastrously. There is no such thing as a gliding helicopter. This is why being a helicopter pilot is so different from being an airplane pilot, and why in generality, airplane pilots are open, clear-eyed, buoyant extroverts and Helicopter pilots are brooding introspective anticipators of trouble. They know if something bad has not happened it is about to."
Harry Reasoner, after flying on a helicopter mission in Vietnam
