“I want to live everyday all days as hard as I can. We party hard, we love hard, we jump hard because we’re reminded way too often that it can end like that. We’re very aware of how precious life is. What a gift it is. So we use it. It’s not up on a shelf still in its bubble …
Tag: safety
Control of Fear
“The control of fear is a necessary part of the inner work of flight.” William Langewiesche Breathe. Relax. Do the ‘what-if’ work ahead of time. All these are part of the Inner Work of Flight. Quote is from Langewiesche’s 2010 book Aloft: Thoughts on the Experience of Flight. And yes, his Dad wrote the book Stick and Rudder.
Mountains Are
“Mountains are not fair or unfair, they are just dangerous.” Reinhold Messner, All Fourteen 8,000ers, 1999. Wikipedia says this about Messner: He made the first solo ascent of Mount Everest and, along with Peter Habeler, the first ascent of Everest without supplemental oxygen. He was the first person to climb all 14 eight-thousanders, doing so without supplementary oxygen. Messner was …
Your New Job is to Say …
“Your new job is to say ‘no,’ when everyone else says ‘go’.” Happy New Year! Here’s to resolutions of flying more, flying better. This quote is from new Delta captain Jeremy King, his first trip as pilot-in-command of an airliner: https://wordsaloft.substack.com/p/managing-delays-gaining-time-without
81% of ERAU Pilots Bust IFR Minimums
OK, this might be a bit of a ‘one weird trick nobody knows’ clickbait avgeek troll headline — but this is a real paper on real research in a real journal. It’s in Safety Science, titled ‘An analysis of a pilot’s adherence to their personal weather minimums’, written by Professor Scott Winter et al.. Full citation at the end of …
It Can Happen to You
In 2013 FAA Safety Briefing magazine published a seemingly unremarkable story about a mindless runway incursion in a light piston twin. Human error. Could have been bad, but like most incidents, no big deal. What’s interesting is the author. He was a master pilot. The byline is Gene Cernan, fighter pilot, test pilot, aeronautical engineer, astronaut, Moonwalker, and general aviation …
In This Corner . . .
Every flight is a fight! Human Error be old and out of shape, but never count him out.
Put Your Eyes Here
Overheard from in third-grader’s zoom classroom, the teacher telling my son to focus — “Put your eyes here Alex”. Very clear directions from an experienced elementary school teacher. A teacher who knows if you’re not looking at the words, you’re not reading the assignment. So simple. But very powerful for him. And me. Because last night I read in the …
Out of This Nettle
I live in Phoenix, Arizona. So the picture isn’t of English stinging nettles, but the top of a big prickly saguaro cactus. However, Shakespeare’s line from 1591 still rings true today: “’Tis dangerous to take a cold, to sleep, to drink; but I tell you, my lord fool, out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.”
The Sea is Always Ready
“We must remember that the sea is no respector of ships or persons. The sea is always ready, at the first sign of failure, to rush in and destroy the very craft it so readily supports upon the surface of the water. The sea is only safe and harmless so long as the ship is safe and seaworthy and ably …