These sayings were written by the pilot Stamatis Papageorgiou in http://forum.hang-gliding.gr and we read them to overcome our «aviophobia» and our altitude phobia! Enjoy them:
When in doubt, rely on your altitude. No one has ever collided with the air.
Try to learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to do it all yourself.
Speed, altitude and brains. Two of these are always necessary to complete a flight.
If you have to face an emergency landing, fly as far away as you can before you nail yourself.
Try to stay in the middle of the air. Don't go near the edges. The edges of the air can be identified by the appearance of terrain, buildings, trees and interstellar space. It's much harder to fly there.
The three most popular expressions in aviation are: “Why is he doing that?”, “Where are we?”, and “Oh shit!”.
The weather forecast is like a horoscope, but with numbers.
A smooth landing is mostly luck. Two in a row is absolute luck. Three in a row is a lie.
I remember when sex was safe and flying was dangerous.
We have an absolute record in aviation. We never left anybody up there.
The flashlight is a cylindrical container for storing dead batteries.
Aviation is not inherently dangerous. But to a far greater degree than the sea, it is terribly ruthless to any indifference, incompetence or negligence.
A good landing is one that you can walk out of. An excellent landing is one where you can then use your aircraft again.
Any take-off is optional. But every landing is mandatory.
If you push the lever forward, the houses get bigger. If you pull it back, they get smaller, unless you keep pulling it, in which case they get bigger again.
Flying is not dangerous. The collision is.
One of the most important skills a pilot needs to develop is to ignore what non-pilots have designed to attract attention.
It's always better to be down on Earth and wish you were in the air than to be in the air and wish you were on Earth.
The probability of survival is inversely proportional to the angle of descent. High angle of descent - low probability of survival and vice versa.
Always try to keep the number of landings equal to the number of take-offs you have made.
The weatherman is a normal person who went to school long enough to get paid to guess what the weather will be like.
You start with a bag full of luck and another bag empty of experiences. The trick is to fill the bag of experiences before the bag of luck is empty.
Good judgment comes from experience. Unfortunately, experience usually comes from wrong judgment.
Look around you all the time. There's always something you've missed.
Remember. Gravity is not just a good idea. And it's not revocable.
There are old pilots and brash pilots. But there are no cheeky old pilots.
If you ever experience a night-time emergency landing, turn on your landing lights. If you don't like what you see, then turn them off again.
Always remember to fly your plane with your head, not your hands.
Those who hoot with the owls at night should not fly with the eagles by day.
There are three simple rules for a smooth landing. Unfortunately, no one knows them.
A storm is never as bad on the inside as it looks from the outside. It's worse.
I know there's a lot of money in aviation because I've put it there.
It's easy to make a small fortune in aviation. You start with a big one.
A male pilot is a confused soul who talks about women when he's flying and about flying when he's with women.
A fool and his money are soon flying more aircraft than they can handle.
Speed is safety. Altitude is life safety.
I rate this landing a 9 on the Richter scale.
If we are what we eat, then some pilots should eat more poultry.
Don't forget to keep the blue side up.
