Refueling
“Never pass up an opportunity to refuel when you have the chance.”
—Dick O’Reilly
Flying For Business
“In general, it’s not a good idea for a nonprofessional pilot to fly for business reasons. Convincing yourself that you have to go, even if you are very tired after a long day and/or the weather is poor, is too easy and fraught with problems..”
— Bill Foster
Experience
“I have flown in just about everything, with all kinds of pilots in all parts of the world — British, French, Pakistani, Iranian, Japanese, Chinese — and there wasn't a dime's worth of difference between any of them except for one unchanging, certain fact: the best, most skillful pilot has the most experience..”
— General Chuck Yeager
Experience
“Experience is a wonderful teacher, but it gives the test first and the lesson afterwards.”
— Sparky Imeson
Experience
“Every pilot starts off with a full bag of luck and an empty bag of experience. Hopefully, you can fill up the bag of experience before your luck runs out.”
— Unknown
Experience
“The air pressure instruments tell you what has happened; the attitude indicator and power setting tell you what is happening; experience tells you what will happen.”
— Ralph Butcher
Judgement
“Good judgement comes with experience; unfortunately, experience is usually gained through bad judgment.”
— Unknown
Judgement
“A superior pilot uses his superior judgment to avoid situations which require the use of his superior skill.”
— Frank Borman
Learning
“You need to learn from the mistakes of other pilots because you may not live long enough to learn from your own.”
— Unknown
Practice
“If you're not doing something all of the time, then you're not doing it right.”
— Barry Schiff
Crashing
“If you're going to crash, hit the softest, cheapest thing you can find as slowly as possible.”
— Military Proverb
Risk Taking
“There are bold pilots and old pilots, but few old, bold pilots.”
— Cyril Uwins (British Test Pilot)
Preparation
“Airmen survive because they neglect no detail, take nothing for granted, and even then, expect that something will go wrong.”
— Ralph Butcher
Weather
“A bird when panicked flies higher; man goes for the ground.”
— Unknown
Weather
“Don't let the bad weather in front of you become the bad weather around you.”
— Unknown
Multi-engine Aircraft
“A multi-engine aircraft is twice as safe as a single engine aircraft and also twice as dangerous—it depends on the pilot.”
— Unknown
Safety Margins
“To pilots, the three most useless things in the world are the runway behind them, the altitude above them, and the fuel they did not put in the tanks.”
— Ralph Butcher
Advanced Equipment
“Sometimes an equipment upgrade can lead to a pilot downgrade.”
— Unknown