Aviation Pithy Sayings
Sam Hobbs
article on general aviation, safety, etc.
They included a couple of "Pithy Sayings":
Speed is life, altitude is life insurance.
Never let an airplane take you somewhere your
brain didn't get to five minutes earlier.
Does anyone have any more to add?
One I have heard frequently though it isn't exactly a pithy saying that does
you much good.
You can always tell a fighter pilot,
but you can't tell him much.
Dave English's aviation quotes sight has some:
http://www.skygod.com/quotes/index.html then link to cliches
One of the cliches listed there is:
Will Rogers never met a fighter pilot.
which I didn't understand until I recalled:
I never met a man I didn't like.
--- Will Rogers epitaph
Regards
Sam
dcb
There are three things that won't do you any good: runway behind you,
altitude above you and gas in the fuel truck.
You might try on any one of the many aviation newsgroups for more.
On Mon, 2 Aug 1999 13:32:16 -0400, "Sam Hobbs"
<samh...@mindspring.com> wrote:
>In the aftermath of the JFK, Jr. crash, _Newsweek_ (8/2/99) included an
>article on general aviation, safety, etc.
>
>They included a couple of "Pithy Sayings":
>
> Speed is life, altitude is life insurance.
>
> Never let an airplane take you somewhere your
> brain didn't get to five minutes earlier.
>
>Does anyone have any more to add?
>
--
Regards, Diane
boe...@csi.com
Frank Lynch
Chapter 6
A dissertation on the art of flying
Among the artists that had been allured into the happy valley, to labour for the
accommodation and pleasure of its inhabitants, was a
man eminent for his knowledge of the mechanick powers, who had contrived many
engines both of use and recreation. By a wheel,
which the stream turned, he forced the water into a tower, whence it was
distributed to all the apartments of the palace. He erected a
pavillion in the garden, around which he kept the air always cool by artificial
showers. One of the groves, appropriated to the ladies,
was ventilated by fans, to which the rivulet that run through it gave a constant
motion; and instruments of soft musick were placed at
proper distances, of which some played by the impulse of the wind, and some by
the power of the stream. This artist was sometimes
visited by Rasselas, who was pleased with every kind of knowledge, imagining
that the time would come when all his acquisitions
should be of use to him in the open world. He came one day to amuse himself in
his usual manner, and found the master busy in
building a sailing chariot: he saw that the design was practicable upon a level
surface, and with expressions of great esteem solicited its
completion. The workman was pleased to find himself so much regarded by the
prince, and resolved to gain yet higher honours. "Sir,
said he, you have seen but a small part of what the mechanick sciences can
perform. I have been long of opinion, that, instead of the
tardy conveyance of ships and chariots, man might use the swifter migration of
wings; that the fields of air are open to knowledge,
and that only ignorance and idleness need crawl upon the ground."
This hint rekindled the prince's desire of passing the mountains; having seen
what the mechanist had already performed, he was willing
to fancy that he could do more; yet resolved to enquire further before he
suffered hope to afflict him by disappointment. "I am afraid,
said he to the artist, that your imagination prevails over your skill, and that
you now tell me rather what you wish than what you know.
Every animal has his element assigned him; the birds have the air, and man and
beasts the earth." "So, replied the mechanist, fishes
have the water, in which yet beasts can swim by nature, and men by art. He that
can swim needs not despair to fly: to swim is to fly
in a grosser fluid, and to fly is to swim in a subtler. We are only to
proportion our power of resistance to the different density of the
matter through which we are to pass. You will be necessarily upborn by the air,
if you can renew any impulse upon it, faster than the
air can recede from the pressure."
"But the exercise of swimming, said the prince, is very laborious; the strongest
limbs are soon wearied; I am afraid the act of flying
will be yet more violent, and wings will be of no great use, unless we can fly
further than we can swim."
"The labour of rising from the ground, said the artist, will be great, as we see
it in the heavier domestick fowls; but, as we mount
higher, the earth's attraction, and the body's gravity, will be gradually
diminished, till we shall arrive at a region where the man will
float in the air without any tendency to fall: no care will then be necessary,
but to move forwards, which the gentlest impulse will
effect. You, Sir, whose curiosity is so extensive, will easily conceive with
what pleasure a philosopher, furnished with wings, and
hovering in the sky, would see the earth, and all it's inhabitants, rolling
beneath him, and presenting to him successively, by it's diurnal
motion, all the countries within the same parallel. How must it amuse the
pendent spectator to see the moving scene of land and ocean,
cities and desarts! To survey with equal security the marts of trade, and the
fields of battle; mountains infested by barbarians, and
fruitful regions gladdened by plenty, and lulled by peace! How easily shall we
then trace the Nile through all his passage; pass over to
distant regions, and examine the face of nature from one extremity of the earth
to the other!"
"All this, said the prince, is much to be desired, but I am afraid that no man
will be able to breathe in these regions of speculation and
tranquility. I have been told, that respiration is difficult upon lofty
mountains, yet from these precipices, though so high as to produce
great tenuity of the air, it is very easy to fall: therefore I suspect, that
from any height, where life can be supported, there may be
danger of too quick descent."
"Nothing, replied the artist, will ever be attempted, if all possible objections
must be first overcome. If you will favour my project I will
try the first flight at my own hazard. I have considered the structure of all
volant animals, and find the folding continuity of the bat's
wings most easily accommodated to the human form. Upon this model I shall begin
my task to morrow, and in a year expect to tower
into the air beyond the malice or persuit of man. But I will work only on this
condition, that the art shall not be divulged, and that you
shall not require me to make wings for any but ourselves."
"Why, said Rasselas, should you envy others so great an advantage? All skill
ought to be exerted for universal good every man has
owed much to others, and ought to repay the kindness that he has received."
"If men were all virtuous, returned the artist, I should with great alacrity
teach them all to fly. But what would be the security of the
good, if the bad could at pleasure invade them from the sky? Against an army
sailing through the cloud neither walls, nor mountains,
nor seas, could afford any security. A flight of northern savages might hover in
the wind, and light at once with irresistible violence
upon the capital of a fruitful region that was rolling under them. Even this
valley, the retreat of princes, the abode of happiness, might
be violated by the sudden descent of some of the naked nations that swarm on the
coast of the southern sea."
The prince promised secrecy, and waited for the performance, not wholly hopeless
of success. He visited the work from time to time,
observed its progress, and remarked many ingenious contrivances to facilitate
motion, and unite levity with strength. The artist was
every day more certain that he should leave vultures and eagles behind him, and
the contagion of his confidence seized upon the
prince.
In a year the wings were finished, and, on a morning appointed, the maker
appeared furnished for flight on a little promontory: he
waved his pinions a while to gather air, then leaped from his stand, and in an
instant dropped into the lake. His wings, which were of
no use in the air, sustained him in the water, and the prince drew him to land,
half dead with terrour and vexation.
Frank Lynch
--
The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page is at:
http://www.samueljohnson.com/
Daniel P. B. Smith
Sam Hobbs <samh...@mindspring.com> wrote:
>In the aftermath of the JFK, Jr. crash, _Newsweek_ (8/2/99) included an
>article on general aviation, safety, etc.
>
>They included a couple of "Pithy Sayings":
>
> Speed is life, altitude is life insurance.
>
> Never let an airplane take you somewhere your
> brain didn't get to five minutes earlier.
>
>Does anyone have any more to add?
Altitude, airspeed, and brains--you're OK as long as you have any two.
There are old pilots and there are bold pilots but there are no old, bold
pilots.
--
Daniel P. B. Smith
dpbs...@world.std.com
Simgomez
>
Lose not thine airspeed, lest the earth rise up and smite thee.
Sam Hobbs
Sam
Frank Lynch
> Wow . . . that is neat. Thanks
> Sam
I felt bad about posting an entire chapter... But if you haven't read
it, you should read the whole thing. "Rasselas" is a wonderful dialog
on the pros and cons of what we all face. It's a classic...
Bill Nourse
>
> >Does anyone have any more to add?
> >
>
> Lose not thine airspeed, lest the earth rise up and smite thee.
There are old pilots, and there are bold pilots, but there are no old
bold pilots.
A mid-air collision can spoil your entire day.
--
Charles W. ("Bill") Nourse, Ed.D., CPP
Memphis, Tennessee USA
http://personal.mem.bellsouth.net/~nourse
--
" . . . one who does not have a sword should sell his cloak and buy
one."
(Luke 22:36)
Serenleono
> Speed is life, altitude is life insurance.
The highest art form of all is a human being
in control of himself and his airplane in
flight, urging the spirit of a machine to match
his own.
-- Richard Bach, A GIFT OF WINGS,
"A Light in the Toolbox"
--
Seren
"Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all." -- John F. Kennedy
Reginleif the Valkyrie
about it. How do you feel if at 30,000 feet, the guy's yelling, "Okay, who
wants to use Runway 9?
-- Professor Steve Kerr
This was another gem from my dictaphone/speed typing days. Kerr, I gathered, is
some sort of motivational business speaker, and a very good one: the above joke
got a riotous laugh from the audience.
Reginleif