The Murphy Builders Site

Aviation Humor From A Bygone Year <

Good advice for any pilot...sorta basic common
sense from years gone by.


Keep the aeroplane in such an attitude that the
air pressure is directly in the pilot's face.
-Horatio C. Barber, 1916

When a flight is proceeding incredibly well,
something was forgotten.
Robert Livingston,

From 'Flying The Aeronca' - The only time an aircraft has
too much fuel on board is when it is on fire.
- Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, sometime before his
death in the 1920's

Flexible is much too rigid, in aviation you have
to be fluid.
- Verne Jobst

If you can't afford to do something right, then be
darn sure you can afford to do it wrong.
- Charlie Nelson

Just remember, if you crash because of weather,
your funeral will be held on a sunny day.
- Layton A. Bennett

I hope you either take up parachute jumping or
stay out of single motored,airplanes at night.
- Charles A. Lindbergh, to Wiley! Post, 1931

Never fly the 'A' model of anything.
- Ed Thompson

Never fly anything that doesn't have the paint
worn off the rudder Pedals.
- Harry Bill

Keep thy airspeed up, less the earth come from
below and smite thee.
- William Kershner

When a prang seems inevitable, endeavour to strike
the softest, cheapest object in the vicinity, as slowly
and gently as possible.
advice given to RAF pilots during W.W.II.

Instrument flying is when your mind gets a grip on
the fact that there is vision beyond sight.
- U.S. Navy 'Approach' magazine circa W.W.II.

Always keep an 'out' in your hip pocket.
- Bevo Howard

The Cub is the safest airplane in the world; it
can just barely kill you.
- attributed to Max Stanley, Northrop test pilot

A pilot who doesn't have any fear probably isn't
flying his plane to its maximum.
- Jon McBride, astronaut

If you're faced with a forced landing, fly the
thing as far into the crash as possible.
- Bob Hoover

It occurred to me that if I did not handle the
crash correctly, there would be no survivors.
- Richard Leakey, after engine failure in a single
engine, Nairobi, Africa,1993

If an airplane is still in one piece, don't cheat
on it. Ride the dog down.
- Ernest K. Gann, advice from the 'old pelican'

Though I Fly Through the Valley of Death I Shall
Fear No Evil For I am 80,000 feet and Climbing.
- sign over the entrance to the SR-71 operating
location on Kadena AB, Okinawa


You've never been lost until you've been lost at
Mach 3.
- Paul F. Crickmore,

The emergencies you train for almost never happen.
It's the one you can't train for that kills you.
- Ernest K. Gann, advice from the 'old pelican'

If you want to grow old as a pilot, you've got to
know when to push it, and when to back off.
- Chuck Yeager

Never fly in the same cockpit with someone braver
than you.
- Richard Herman Jr, 'Firebreak'

There is no reason to fly through a thunderstorm
in peacetime.
- Sign over squadron ops desk at Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, 1970.

An airplane might disappoint any pilot but it'll
never surprise a good one.
- Len Morgan

To most people, the sky is the limit. To those
who love aviation, the sky is home.