What's Your Favorite Aviation Quote?

[Guest]

Ryan:

 

All well and good, but for me the thrill of flight doesn't actually have anything to do with all the gadgetry I put in my cockpit.  The thrill starts, for me, on the take off roll.  The realization doesn't hit me until I have stopped cleaning up and checking everything after TOC.  Look around and wonder.........  Wow!!  And at 150 knots too!!

 

For me, the gadgetry is all about one thing and one thing only - helping me put the aircraft in the right place so that I can land safely.  That's it. When I feel the need to enhance my chances of doing that under situations I have allowed (through planning good and bad) and I have the money for it, I will get it.  

 

Until then, I simply look forward to "taking the runway and lining up."  No time for envy.  Just for wonder. 

Ned,

We should do an engine upgrade, your cruise numbers are off a bit!!

Clarence

[John Pleisse]

Can someone translate the last one from Texan to English?

Clarence

 

It's "what"....got to be care-few-ell when quoting. Changed the original post for your discerning edification.

[Guest]

It's "what"....got to be care-few-ell when quoting. Changed the original post for your discerning edification.

I suspected as much, but you just never know!

Clarence

[Ned Gravel]

Ned,

We should do an engine upgrade, your cruise numbers are off a bit!!

Clarence

 

Shhhh!!!

[HRM]

We fly, but we have not 'conquered' the air. Nature presides in all her dignity, permitting us the study and the use of such of her forces as we may understand. It is when we presume to intimacy, having been granted only tolerance, that the harsh stick falls across our impudent knuckles and we rub the pain, staring upward, startled by our ignorance.

 

― Beryl Markham, West with the Night

[RobertoTohme]

When conditions aren't right, remember, there are no emergency takeoffs...

[Yetti]

FIFI

[320KPH]

you can never have too much fuel in an airplane....

 

 

until the fire starts...

[HRM]

Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward—Vernon Law

 

 

Not quite aimed at aviation, but very much appropriate.

[Htwjr]

When I was younger my uncle who was a pilot told me "Son if it floats, flies or frigs rent it."  I am 0 for 3 following his advice.

[Jeff_S]

I've never owned a boat, but have had two wives and three airplanes.  Does that make me 0 for 5?

 

[Yooper Rocketman]

Any landing you can walk away from is a "good landing".  A landing where you can still use the plane again is a "great landing".

 

During a debate years ago between the "twin advocates" and us lowly SEL pilots as our mercy flight organization was about to buy our first plane there was a clear separation in the group except one United captain who didn't care either way.  One of the other twin guys says, "Bob, wouldn't you rather have a twin flying a night time medical flight than a single?"  Bob answered "Anytime I flying and not being shot at, I'm pretty happy."  (He flew in Nam).  Bob Tice / RIP

 

And a couple favorites from my flight instructor, Jerry Dahl;

 

While he was teaching his wife to fly into their home airport, built on a hill, and looked like you were landing on a aircraft carrier (70' drop off one end, 110' drop off the other, and 2,000' runway).  On final he's telling her "you need to get higher".........."you need to get HIGHER"........"YOU NEED TO GET HIGHER!!!"  She says "WHY"   He says "BECAUSE WE'RE GOING TO GET DIRT IN OUR EYES!!!"  He told her to get another instructor or it was going to ruin their marriage.

 

And his last but my favorite during my instrument training; 

 

"You don't HAVE to accept what the controller is giving you.  Remember, when it's all said and one, he's going home for supper, whether you die or not".

 

A friend I mentored to getting his PP and IFR before graduating from high school went on ATC School and flying for the regionals while waiting to get an ATC job.  He said "when the pilot screws up, the pilot dies, when the controller screws up, the PILOT DIES".

[RobertoTohme]

I've never owned a boat, but have had two wives and three airplanes.  Does that make me 0 for 5?

 

+1!

[BKlott]

I've never owned a boat, but have had two wives and three airplanes.  Does that make me 0 for 5?

 

Two wives???????? You didn't learn after the first one?!

[Sabremech]

"How do you make a million $'s in aviation? Start with two million!"

[Jimhamilton]

"What's it doing now".

[ryoder]

Cub is the safest airplane in the world; it can just barely kill you

[Bob_Belville]

Cub is the safest airplane in the world; it can just barely kill you

A good one, "The Cub is the safest airplane in the world; it can just barely kill you." attributed to Max Stanley, Northrop test pilot

 

(I appeal again for attribution, sometimes it makes the quote.)

[cliffy]

"West with the Night" One of the best books ever written.

From the movie "Mad Mad World" - "What's a behind you no a count!"

[ryoder]

"Keep the pointy side forward, the dirty side down, and please, stay out of the trees" John King

[ryoder]

"Does that mean I fail?" Unknown checkride student

[whiskytango]

Takeoffs are optional.  Landings are mandatory.

[DXB]

 “What freedom lies in flying, what Godlike power it gives to men . . . I lose all consciousness in this strong unmortal space crowded with beauty, pierced with danger."

 

Charles Lindbergh

[DAVIDWH]

"Was that for us?"

[HRM]

Flashlights are tubular metal containers, kept in a flight bag for the purpose of storing dead batteries.