“As we took to the skies it seemed the aircraft was almost an extension of his body, carving its way over the water and through the air as if it already knew what inputs came next.” Niki Britton, describing pilot Aaron Singer flying a seaplane over San Francisco. AOPA Pilot magazine, October 2024. It’s what good flying looks like.
Tag: one with
I’m Just a Bird
“I used to think, I’m just a bird. The glider is the shell, the body of the bird. You become part of it. If you can get to that stage, you can manoeuvre the glider anywhere you want to. Rather than thinking about how to control the machine you’re sitting in, you think, this is all a part of me.” …
I Just Like to Be
“I just like to be up in the air, and the feeling of being a part of the plane.” John Coward John started in Tiger Moths, flew for the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm, and then British Airways, ending his career going around the world in B707s. On retirement, he flew gliders in Wales. Quoted in the wonderful 2018 book …
Ed Dwight, Almost Astronaut
“You did not get ‘into’ a fighter, you strapped it onto your ass and it became an extension of your physical body.” Ed Dwight.NY Times article 16 July 2019. Amazing life story of Ed Dwight, almost the first Black astronaut, who could have walked on the Moon: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/16/us/ed-dwight-was-set-to-be-the-first-black-astronaut-heres-why-that-never-happened.html
Robin Olds on Flying
Fighter pilot legend. Triple Ace. Multiple combat victories against Messerschmitts and MiGs. Married to a Hollywood actress. Son of a General, who became a General himself. College football star. Best Wing Commander in Vietnam. Hard-drinking mustached maverick, who eventually was Commandant of the Air Force Academy. Robin Olds had an amazing career. But let’s look here at some of his …
Only One Time
Living in the here and now can sound very hippy-dippy, but it’s also where all our power resides. And as pilots, we like power! “Remember then: there is only one time that is important— Now! It is the most important time because it is the only time when we have any power.” ~ Leo Tolstoy, What Men Live By. 1885.
Richard Bach on Flying’s Core
New Richard Bach words on flying! He’s owned 41 planes, flew jets in the USAF, and as West Coast editor of Flying magazine saw loads more. I asked him what’s core to flying them all? “Flying all these aircraft is based on one single prayer that will never come true: Please let me become the sky. From 10 mph in …
Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown Talks Flying
Legendary Captain Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown was a British Royal Navy test pilot who flew 487 types of aircraft, more than anyone else in history. He was the most-decorated pilot in the history of the Royal Navy. Some of his ‘firsts’ include first to land a jet on an aircraft carrier and first to land a twin-engine aircraft on an aircraft …
A Button Pusher?
How to tell if you have a feel for your airplane, by Budd Davisson in EAA’s Sport Aviation magazine, September 2017 (paywall): Do you see the air? Or do you just push FMS buttons?
Aeroplane Does All the Work
This quote comes from Mike Riley’s little gem, The Concorde Stick and Rudder Book. You don’t fight an plane — you understand its ways and set the controls to let her fly well. Even, as it turns out, Concorde. Mike Riley was a British Airways captain who instructed in the B707, VC10 and Concorde. He also instructed in light aircraft, …