- ‘Though I Fly Through the Valley of Death , I Shall Fear No Evil. For I am at 80,000 Feet and Climbing.’
- ‘You’ve never been lost until you’ve been lost at Mach 3.’
– Paul F. Crickmore (test pilot) - ‘The only time you have too much fuel is when you’re on fire.’
- ‘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.’
- ‘Even with ammunition, the USAF is just another expensive flying club..’
- ‘What is the similarity between air traffic controllers and pilots?
If a pilot screws up, the pilot dies; If ATC screws up … The pilot dies.’ - ‘Never trade luck for skill.’
- The three most common expressions (famous last words), in aviation are:
- ‘Why is it doing that?’
- ‘Where are we?’
And - ‘Oh S…!’
- ‘Airspeed, altitude and brains. Two are always needed to successfully complete the flight.’
- ‘Mankind has a perfect record in aviation; we’ve never left one up there!’
- ‘Flying the airplane is more important than radioing your plight to a person on the ground incapable of understanding or doing anything about it.’
- ‘The Piper Cub is the safest airplane in the world; it can just barely kill you.’
– Max Stanley (Northrop test pilot) - ‘There is no reason to fly through a thunderstorm in peacetime.’
Sign over squadron ops desk at Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, 1970 - ‘If something hasn’t broken on your helicopter, it’s about to.’
- ‘You know that your landing gear is up and locked when it takes full power to taxi to the terminal.’
- As the test pilot climbs out of the experimental aircraft, having torn off the wings and tail in the crash landing, the crash truck arrives; the rescuer sees a bloodied pilot and asks, ‘What happened?’
The pilot’s reply: ‘I don’t know, I just got here myself!’
– Attributed to Ray Crandell (Lockheed test pilot)