This week, I’ve got a few more of my favorite Naval Aviator “Birdman Wisdom.”
If you push the control stick forward, the houses get bigger. If you pull the stick back, they get smaller. If you keep pulling the stick all the way back, then they get bigger again.
Flaring a jet for a carrier landing is like squatting to pee.
When in doubt, hold on to your altitude. No one has ever collided with the sky.
A smooth landing is mostly luck. Two in a row is all luck. Three in a row is provocation.
Learn from the mistakes of others. You won’t live long enough to make all of them yourself.
When a flight is going extremely well, something was forgotten.
When one engine fails on a twin engine airplane, you always have enough power left to get you to the scene of the crash.
Never let an aircraft take you somewhere your brain didn’t get to five minutes earlier.
Remember, if you crash because of weather, your funeral will be held on a sunny day.
Weather forecast are horoscopes with numbers.
Never run out of altitude, airspeed, and ideas all at the same time.
Never trade luck for skill.
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 problem to a person on the ground incapable of understanding it or doing anything about it.
Three great things in life are a good landing, a good orgasm, and a good bowel movement. The night aircraft carrier landing is one of the few opportunities in life where you get to experience all three at the same time.
Good ones!