Best of the Best
1. The three most common expressions in aviation are:
"Why is it doing that?"
"Where are we?" and
"Shit!"

Progress in airline flying: now a flight attendant can get a pilot pregnant.

Airspeed, altitude or brains: two are always needed to successfully complete the flight.

I remember when sex was safe and flying was dangerous.

We have a perfect record in aviation: we never left one up there!

"Though I Fly Through the Valley of Death I Shall Fear No Evil For I Am At 80,000 Feet and Climbing" - Sign over the entrance to the SR-71 operating location on Kadena AB Okinawa.

You've never been lost until you've been lost at Mach 3.
- Paul F Crickmore

The three best things in life are a good landing, a good orgasm, and a good bowel movement. The night carrier landing is one of the few opportunities in life to experience all three at the same time. -Unknown

If the wings are traveling faster than the fuselage, it's probably a helicopter - and unsafe.

Federal Aviation Regulations are written by lawyers to promote violations and lawsuits.

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

Flying the airplane is more important than radioing your plight to a person on the ground incapable of understanding it.

An accident investigation attempts to place blame on the hapless for brief lapses.

To err is human; to forgive divine - and neither is FAA policy.

When a flight is proceeding incredibly well, something was forgotten.
-Robert Livingston, 'Flying The Aeronca'

The only time an aircraft has too much fuel on board is when it is on fire. - Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, sometime before his death in the 1920s

If you can't afford to do something right, then be darn sure you can afford to do it wrong. - Charlie Nelson

I hope you either take up parachute jumping or stay out of single-motored airplanes at night. -Charles A. Lindbergh to Wiley Post, 1931

Never fly the 'A' model of anything. - Ed Thompson

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

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

A pilot who doesn't have any fear probably isn't flying his plane to its maximum. - Jon McBride, astronaut

Never fly in the same cockpit with someone braver than you.
- Richard Herman Jr., 'Firebreak'

It only takes two things to fly: --- airspeed and money.

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.

It's better to break ground and head into the wind than to break wind and head into the ground.

Without ammunition the USAF would be just another expensive flying club.

If something hasn't broken on your helicopter, it's about to.

I give that landing a 9 . . . . on the Richter scale.

Basic Flying Rules:
1. Try to stay in the middle of the air.
2. Do not go near the edges of it.
3. 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.

Why Flying is Fearful for Some
--Concern that comes closer creates anxiety that breeds stress leading to fear and fear responses.
--To become an old pilot you must go through this series of emotions many times.
--Each emotional step of the series has an ever increasing focus of attention.
--The focus of attention early on is an important phase of successful achievement
--Focus of attention contains seeds of destruction where the individual freezes in thought and movement.
--Concern is more of an intellectual than emotional view of the situation coming.
--Anxiety is an emotional apprehension that can increase in intensity to a point of disability.
--The anxiety chain may lead to panic disorder a rapidly recurring episode of 13 different symptoms.
--The anxiety chain may lead to a specific phobia whose fears overwhelm all other considerations.
--A phobic lives in a state of dread, evasion and avoidance that is uncontrollable.
--The anxiety chain may lead to the obsessive-compulsive disorder consisting of thoughts and feelings that involve elaborate and bizarre behaviors.
--The anxiety chain may lead to post-traumatic stress disorder where a terrible event is relived over and over.
--The anxiety chain may leave to a generalized anxiety disorder where the memory of an event persists daily.
--The anxiety chain is hardwired from birth into our brains. Our senses send selective messages to the brain.
--Some are born with genetic susceptibility to a more sensitive anxiety chain.
--Some are born with a nervous system unable to control the sensitizing of the anxiety chain.
--The hardwired brain part (amygdala) detects an anxiety chain before it reaches our conscious mind (cortex).
--The amygdala is the emotional response center that will trigger fear when situation warrants.
--Hearing, vision, smell and touch inform the thalamus and then sends data to the cortex for decision making.
-- Situations that do not trigger the amygdala may go to the stria terminals as concern or anxiety
--When the amygdala reacts to fear it signals the locus ceruleus to activate the required physical reactions.
--Hormones, heart, senses and digestion all react to the locus ceruleus' warning of danger.
--The hippocampus is the memory bank where sense information is stored by the amygdala.
--The system is designed to give fast response when need exists. It does not reverse direction well.
--For the pilot the best resolution of an anxiety chain problem appears to be behavioral therapy. This means gradual desensitizing by exposure to what is creating a concern. Exercise seems to help as does yoga.
--Any chemical solution will not let you fly legally.

Making Flying Safer
--Avoid altitudes below 3000'AGL that are 500s or thousands.
--Never report over a common checkpoint. Report distance to the side.
--New pilots tend to report what the can see as a reporting point rather than what they are over..
--Know where other planes report are in relationship to your situation.
--A 270 departure gets you higher and on course sooner.
--Clearing both bases and final approach only has to save you life once.
--Always tell someone at home where you plan to fly.
--Make your departure radio call as being on-course toward an airport.
--Fly to the right side of valleys and roads.
--Fly ifr (I follow roads) in the mountains.
--Practice some minimum altitude flying daytime to make night-flying safer.
--Go to an unfamiliar airport in daylight before going at night.
--Take every opportunity to talk to the locals about their airport.
--Always drive with an eye out for power lines, towers and places to land.
--Always takeoff with a landing plan for every minute of climb out.
--Know and avoid common flyways.
--Know local IFR approach routes and avoid in poor visibility.
--Know how to do SVFR and when not to.
--A little night flying is hazardous, do a lot or none.
--You will never learn to enjoy turbulence. Plan accordingly.
--What you say on the radio is just as important as when you say it.
--Knowing when to use the radio is as important as how you say it.
--Use suggestive assertiveness to get ATC to say, "Approved as requested".

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