The latest e-news from Courtesy Aircraft Sales in Rockford, Ill., contains a fun list of “Rules of the Air for Pilots we thought our readers would enjoy as well:
1. Every takeoff is optional. Every landing is mandatory.
2. If you push the stick forward, the houses get bigger. If you pull the stick back, they get smaller. That is, unless you keep pulling the stick all the way back, then they get bigger again.
3. Flying isn’t dangerous. Crashing is what is dangerous.
4. It’s always better to be down here wishing you were up there than being up there and wishing you were down here.
5. The ONLY time you have too much fuel is when you are on fire.
6. The propeller is just a big fan in front of the plane used to keep the pilot cool. When it stops, you can actually 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 they can use the plane again.
9. Learn from the mistakes of others. You won’t live long enough to make all of them yourself.
10. Stay out of the clouds. The silver lining everyone keeps talking about might be another plane going in the opposite direction. Reliable sources also report that mountains have been know to hide out in the clouds.
11. Always try to keep the number of landings you make equal to the number of takeoffs you made.
12. There are three simple rules for making a smooth landing. Unfortunately no one know what they are.
13. 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.
14. If all you can see out of the window is ground that is going round and round and all you can hear is commotion come from the passenger compartment, things are not all as they should be.
15. 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 has yet to lose.
16. Good judgment comes from experience. Unfortunately, the experience usually comes from bad judgment.
17. It is always a good idea to keep the pointy end going forward as much as possible.
18. Keep looking around. There is always something you’ve missed.
19. Remember: Gravity is not just a good idea. It’s the law. And it’s a law that is not subject to repeal.
20. The three most useless things to a pilot are the altitude above you, a runway behind you, and a tenth of a second ago.
