Letter From A Retired Airline Pilot To His Peers

Here is a home study simulator course for those who still hunger for the romance and adventure of airline flying. That “Romance and Adventure” will all come back to you if you follow the steps of this “practice trip” at home:
1. Stay out of bed all night.

2. Sit in your most uncomfortable chair, in a closet, for nine or ten hours facing a four foot wide panoramic photo of a flight deck.

3. Have two or three noisy vacuum cleaners on high, out of sight but within hearing distance and operating throughout the night. If a vacuum cleaner fails, do the appropriate restart checklist.

4. Halfway through your nocturnal simulator course, arrange for a bright spotlight to shine directly into your face for two or three hours, simulating flying an eastbound flight into the sunrise.

5. Have bland overcooked food served on a tray midway through the night.

6. Have cold cups of coffee delivered from time to time. Ask your spouse to slam the door frequently.

7. At the time when you must heed nature’s call, force yourself to stand outside the bathroom door for at least ten minutes, transferring your weight from leg to leg, easing the discomfort. Don’t forget to wear your hat.

8. Leave the closet after the prescribed nine or ten hours, turn on your sprinklers and stand out in the cold and “rain” for twenty minutes, simulating the wait for the crew car.

9. Head for your bedroom, wet and with your suitcase and flight bag. Stand outside the door till your wife gets up and leaves, simulating the wait while the maid makes up the hotel room.

10. When your spouse inquires, “Just what in the hell have you been doing?” just say, “Recalling the allure of all night flying to romantic places.” as you collapse into bed.

11. If you are a purist, make this a two-day trip instead of a turn-around, and do this two nights in a row. Hope you enjoy your sim session. :)

FLYBOYS

You know you are Flyboy when -
…you start referring to your airports by their IATA or ICAO codes.
…you are flying from SEA-JFK and you fly across the Pacific.
…you know exactly what plane is flying over your house.
…you fly longhaul flights on Flight Sim.
...…your flight sim folder surpasses your computer’s memory.
…you use aviation analogies in English class!

all about flying

1 - Every takeoff is optional. Every landing is mandatory.

2 - Flying isn't inherently dangerous. It's crashing that's dangerous.

3 - If you push the 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, they get bigger again, quickly, very quickly.

4 - It's always better to be down here wishing you were up there than up there wishing you were down here.

5 - The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.

6 - The propeller is just a big fan in front of the plane to keep the pilot cool. If it stops, you will see the pilot start sweating.

7 - When in doubt, hold on to your altitude. No one has ever collided with the sky.

8 - A "good" landing is one from which you can walk away. A "great" landing is one after which the airplane can still be used.

9 - Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make all of them yourself.

10 - You know you've landed with the wheels up if it takes full power to taxi to the ramp.

11 - The probability of survival is inversely proportional to the angle of arrival.

12 - In the ongoing battle between objects made of aluminum going hundreds of miles per hour and the ground going zero miles per hour, the ground always wins.

13 - Good judgment comes from experience. Experience usually comes from bad judgment.

14 - It's always a good idea to keep the pointy end going forward as much as possible

15 - Gravity is not just a good idea. It's the law. And it's not subject to appeal.

16 - Keep looking around. There's always something you've missed.

17 - The three most useless things to a pilot are the altitude above you, runway behind you, and a tenth of a second ago.

18 - Never let an aircraft take you somewhere your brain didn't get to five minutes earlier.

19 - Stay out of clouds. The silver lining everybody keeps talking about might be another airplane going in the opposite direction. And mountains hide in clouds.

20 - Always try to keep the number of landings you make equal to the number of take offs you've made.

21 - There are three simple rules for making a smooth landing. Unfortunately no one knows what they are.

22 - You start with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck.

23 - If all you can see out of the window is ground that's going round and round and all you can hear is commotion coming from the passenger compartment, things are not at all as they should be.

24 - When in doubt, take AMTRAK. They may crash more, but they don't have to fall out of the sky to do it.

THIS IS Y I AM AWESOME

Look me in the eyes. It's okay if you're scared, So am I. But we're scared for different reasons. I'm scared of what I won't become, and you're scared of what I could become. Look at me. I won't let myself end where I started, I won't let myself finish where I began. I know what is within me, Even if you can't see it yet. Look me in the eyes. I have something more important than courage, I have patience. I will become, what I know I am

brave death:mary elizibeth

Do not stand at my grave and weep, I am not there, I do not sleep. I am in a thousand winds that blow, I am the softly falling snow. I am the gentle showers of rain, I am the fields of ripening grain. I am in the morning hush, I am in the graceful rush Of beautiful birds in circling flight, I am the starshine of the night. I am in the flowers that bloom, I am in a quiet room. I am in the birds that sing, I am in each lovely thing. Do not stand at my grave and cry, I am not there. I do not die.