HIGH FLIGHT Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung My eager craft through footless halls of air. Up, up the long delirious, burning blue, I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace Where never lark, or even eagle flew - And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod The high untresspassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand and touched the face of God. Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee No 412 squadron, RCAF Killed 11 December 1941
The natural function of the wing is to soar upwards and carry that which is heavy up to the place where dwells the race of gods. More than any other thing that pertains to the body it partakes of the nature of the divine. — Plato, Phaedrus.
"Brace for impact." — Sullenberger's announcement to those aboard the flight, as recounted by multiple passengers on the plane, New York Times, Jan. 16, 2009 Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1872247,00.html#ixzz1FB9T6g9k
The strength of the turbulence is directly proportional to the temperature of your coffee. — Gunter's Second Law of Air Travel
milchap, excellent poem from Magee. Hard to believe he was only 19 when he wrote this and would die in an accident two short months thereafter. The only quote I can think of is not specific to aviation, but one my nephew loved - To infinity....and beyond! <Buzz Lightyear>
It was my privilege to be part of the admin support team for 412 squadron. We were proud of our squadron mate....even years later. Glad you liked it.....it has been used often at pilot funerals....IIRC even at national service for Challenger crew.
"Solar radiation heats the earth's crust, warm air rises, cool air descends: turbulence. I don't like that."
Can't remember if it was in the service, but Reagan quoted it in his national TV address the night of the disaster.
Oh, it's a big pretty white plane with red stripes, curtains in the windows and wheels and it looks like a big Tylenol. We're flying in a Lockheed Eagle Series L-1011. Came off the line twenty months ago. Carries a Sim-5 transponder tracking system. And you're telling me I can still flummox this thing with something I bought at Radio Shack?
A good landing is any landing you can walk away from. A very good landing is where they can also re-use the aircraft.
"Never regret thy fall, O Icarus of the fearless flight For the greatest tragedy of them all Is never to feel the burning light" – Oscar Wilde
Captain after coming to a screeching halt "Damn, that was the shortest runway I've ever landed on." First Officer, after looking left and right "Bloody widest runway I've ever landed on too".
From the early 70's... Frankfurt Control Tower: "British Airways 542, you are on the wrong taxiway. Have you never been to Frankfurt before?" British Airways Captain: "Frankfurt tower, yes I have been to Frankfurt before. It was almost 30 years ago. It was dark. And I wasn't landing."
Both optimists and pessimists contribute to the society. The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute. - George Bernard Shaw.
When it comes to testing new aircraft or determining maximum performance, pilots like to talk about "pushing the envelope." They're talking about a two dimensional model: the bottom is zero altitude, the ground; the left is zero speed; the top is max altitude; and the right, maximum velocity, of course. So, the pilots are pushing that upper-right-hand corner of the envelope. What everybody tries not to dwell on is that that's where the postage gets canceled, too. — Admiral Rick Hunter, U.S. Navy.
Muhammad Ali: Superman don’t need no seat belt. Flight Attendant: Superman don’t need no airplane, either.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the very first Fokker airplane built in the world. The Dutch call it the mother Fokker. — Custodian at the Aviodome aviation museum, Schiphol airport Amsterdam.
I learned this when I was working on my PPL. It is true: There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots.
"And now 'tis man who dares assault the sky . . . And as we come to claim our promised place, Aim only to repay the good you gave, And warm with human love the chill of space." — Prof. Thomas G. Bergin, Yale University, 'Space Prober.' This was the first poem to be launched into orbit about the Earth. It was inscribed on the instrument panel of a satellite called Traac launched from Cape Kennedy on November 15, 1961.
Before the Wright brothers: ....... "Icarus!" "where are you? In what region shall I seek you?" "Icarus!" he kept saying: he caught sight of feathers in the waves and cursed his own arts and buried the body in a tomb, and the land is called Icaria the name of the one buried there - Ovid
I once asked a friend of mine why he flew single engine planes and if a twin engine was safer. He said, "if one engine stalls, the other engine will get you to the site of the crash."
