"For once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you will always long to return."
      - Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519

A superior pilot is one who uses her superior judgement to avoid situations that would require using her superior skill.

"Keep the aeroplane in such an attitude that the air pressure is directly in the pilot's face."
      - Horatio C. Barber, 1916

"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 1920's

"Flexible is much too rigid, in aviation you have to be fluid."
      - Verne Jobst

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

"Just remember, if you crash because of weather your funeral will be held on a sunny day."
      - Layton A. Bennett

"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

"Never fly anything that doesn't have the paint worn off the rudder pedals."
      - Harry Bill

"Keep thy airspeed up, lest the earth come from below and smite thee."
      - William Kershner

"When a prang seems inevitable, endeavour to strike the softest, cheapest object in the vicinity, as slowly and gently as possible."
      - advice given to RAF pilots during W.W.II

"Instrument flying is when your mind gets a grip on the fact that there is vision beyond sight."
      - U.S. Navy Approach magazine circa W.W.II

"Always keep an 'out' in your hip pocket."
      - Bevo Howard

"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

"If you're faced with a forced landing, fly the thing as far into the crash as possible."
      - Bob Hoover

"It occurred to me that if I did not handle the crash correctly, there would be no survivors."
      - Richard Leakey, after engine failure in a single engine, Nairobi, Africa, 1993.

"If an airplane is still in one piece, don't cheat on it. Ride the bastard down."
      - Ernest K. Gann, advice from the Old Pelican

"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 emergencies you train for almost never happen. It's the one you can't train for that kills you."
      - Ernest K. Gann, advice from the Old Pelican

"If you want to grow old as a pilot you've got to know when to push it, and when to back off."
      - Chuck Yeager

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

"There is no reason to fly through a thunderstorm in peacetime."
      - Sign over Squadron Ops desk at Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, 1970.

"An airplane might disappoint any pilot but it'll never surprise a good one."
      - Len Morgan

"To most people, the sky is the limit. To those who love aviation, the sky is home."

Life is simple. Eat, Sleep, Fly.