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Wisdom of the Aviator

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A sleek, black space shuttle orbiting Earth. The shuttle has a pointed nose and two large engines at the rear. One engine compartment is open, revealing a smaller spacecraft docked on top. Earth’s blue atmosphere and white clouds form the backdrop, with the sun casting a bright light from the upper left. The scene conveys advanced space technology and exploration, highlighting the shuttle’s futuristic design against the vastness of space and the curvature of the planet below.
  • ‘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:
    1. ‘Why is it doing that?’
    2. ‘Where are we?’
      And

    3. ‘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)
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