# Great aviation quotes
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-aviation-quotes/535701
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [April 11, 2010, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-aviation-quotes/535701 "2010-04-11T04:30:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2010, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-aviation-quotes/535701/1 "2010-04-11T04:30:38Z")
Perhaps the best-known aviation quote was made by British Aviation Insurance Group’s Captain A. G. Lamplugh:
_Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. But to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect._
It’s been said that the most often-repeated phrase used by pilots just before running out of altitude and options is ‘_Oh, shit…_’
I can probably think of several aviation quotes, but I’ll get this thread started with this one by British Airways Flight 9 Captain Eric Moody after flying a Boeing 747 into a cloud of volcanic ash in 1982:
_Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them under control. I trust you are not in too much distress._
Afterward, describing attempting to land with a sandblasted windscreen, he said it was
_… a bit like negotiating one’s way up a badger’s arse._.
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### Author:  [@luv2draw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/luv2draw)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2010, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-aviation-quotes/535701/2 "2010-04-11T04:55:49Z")
Chesley Sullenberger: “We’ll be in the Hudson.”
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### Author:  [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2010, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-aviation-quotes/535701/3 "2010-04-11T05:20:09Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Nobody knows the exact date when they started calling us ‘Night Witches’. We were bombing the German positions every night, so the Germans began saying these are ‘Night Witches’, because it seemed impossible to kill us or shoot us down.
- Senior Lieutenant Serafima Amosova-Taranenko
Soviet Women Combat Pilots of WWII.
[http://mysite.pratt.edu/~rsilva/witches.htm](http://mysite.pratt.edu/~rsilva/witches.htm)
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### Author:  [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2010, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-aviation-quotes/535701/4 "2010-04-11T11:54:06Z")
If God wanted man to flay, he would have given him more money
It is possible to make a small fortune in aviation … provided you satrt with a large one.
Brian
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### Author:  [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-aviation-quotes/535701/5 "2010-04-11T14:34:41Z")
My favorite is a (possibly apocryphal) exchange between the tower and a couple of departing flights:
> [@](#):
>
> “Eastern 702, cleared for takeoff, contact Departure on 124.7.”
>
> “Tower, Eastern 702 switching to Departure… By the way, after we lifted off, we saw some kind of dead animal on the far end of the runway.”
>
> “Continental 635, cleared for takeoff, contact Departure on 124.7; did you copy the report from Eastern?”
>
> “Tower, Continental 635 cleared for takeoff. Roger; and yes, we copied Eastern and we’ve already notified our caterers.”
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### Author:  [@Neptunian\_Slug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neptunian_Slug)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2010, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-aviation-quotes/535701/6 "2010-04-11T15:19:56Z")
When I fly United I find the “Flight Deck” channel to listen in on the pilots chatter. You get a lot of interesting stuff.
I have had the tower chew pilots out for not following orders on the ground.
On one flight to the west coast, we were flying through some nasty weather. The whole time, all the different aircraft are communicating and asking if you get a better ride at different flight levels.
My pilot decided to request at 32,000 feet even though no one had reported from that altitute. He had received negative feedback about the turbulence at 29,000 and 35,000. All of the sudden the plane gets rocked by very heavy turbulence. Worst I had felt in a long time.
The next thing you hear is "Denver Center, advise other aircraft not to proceed at 3-2-0. Request 3-5-0.
We had been the guinea pig and all the other aircraft passing through got a nice warning from our pilot about the ride at 32,000. Bastard.
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### Author:  [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2010, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-aviation-quotes/535701/7 "2010-04-11T15:48:17Z")
My vote goes to Al Haynes, pilot of the United DC-10 that crash-landed at Sioux City, Iowa, after an engine failure took out the aircraft’s hydraulics. After what must have been a nightmarish descent, with the pilots able to marginally control the plane only via throttle adjustments, Haynes still had the presence of mind to unleash this quip:
[QUOTE=United 232 conmmunications transcript]
Sioux City: United 232 heavy, winds currently 360 at 11, three sixty at
eleven, you’re cleared to land on any runway.
UAL 232: You want to be particular and make it a runway, huh?
[/Quote]
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2010, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-aviation-quotes/535701/8 "2010-04-11T16:03:27Z")
Pops Mercotan’s famous quote, said to me just before we impacted a Fairchild PT-26 into an oat field nose-first about 75 yards short of the runway:
“We’re a little low and slow…”
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### Author:  [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2010, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-aviation-quotes/535701/9 "2010-04-11T16:10:37Z")
A good landing is one you can walk away from.
A great landing is one you can walk away from AND still use the airplane.
Flying is safe; taking off and landing are dangerous.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2010, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-aviation-quotes/535701/10 "2010-04-11T16:20:46Z")
Thou Shalt Maintain Thy Airspeed, Lest the Ground Reach Up and Smite Thee.
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### Author:  [@figure9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/figure9)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2010, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-aviation-quotes/535701/11 "2010-04-11T16:28:24Z")
“Scratch three flattops!”
From the Battle of Midway.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2010, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-aviation-quotes/535701/12 "2010-04-11T16:36:28Z")
A landing is a controlled mid-air collision between an aircraft and a planet.
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### Author:  [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2010, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-aviation-quotes/535701/13 "2010-04-11T16:41:06Z")
“The secret to my success was that somehow I always managed to live to fly another day.”
–Chuck Yeager
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2010, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-aviation-quotes/535701/14 "2010-04-11T17:03:02Z")
> [@Neptunian\_Slug](#):
>
> When I fly United I find the “Flight Deck” channel to listen in on the pilots chatter. You get a lot of interesting stuff.
I do that too.
Was leaving Dulles for Munich and the controller asked our crew to slow down since there wasn’t a space for us in the trans-Atlantic routes yet. Our pilot asked if we could come back to Dulles and shoot some touch-and-gos for practice. I heard one other passenger laugh.
Taxiing out at O’Hare our pilot got lost and needed directions to the runway. To be fair, I think we had left from a gate that United didn’t typically use.
I live in Boston but flew out of Providence once to save money. On departure, the leading edge slats wouldn’t retract, so we had to divert to another airport. Boston.
> [@blondebear](#):
>
> “The secret to my success was that somehow I always managed to live to fly another day.”
>
> –Chuck Yeager
I saw Yeager speak at the Smithsonian in 1997 (fiftieth anniversary of his X-1 flight). I don’t recall the exact number, but he mentioned how many more landings he has than takeoffs. Most of the X-plane flights were carried aloft and dropped from a bomber, and he’s had two takeoffs where he had to bail out without landing.
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### Author:  [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2010, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-aviation-quotes/535701/15 "2010-04-12T01:47:26Z")
If you ever see something out of the window that scares you… stop looking out the window.
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### Author:  [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2010, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-aviation-quotes/535701/16 "2010-04-12T01:53:39Z")
> [@silenus](#):
>
> Thou Shalt Maintain Thy Airspeed, Lest the Ground Reach Up and Smite Thee.
Do not fly into clouds. Mountains hide in them.
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### Author:  [@Eggerhaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eggerhaus)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2010, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-aviation-quotes/535701/17 "2010-04-12T02:25:22Z")
From my son, the pilot:
“There are old pilots and there bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots.”
Said to me the first time he took me up:
“See all these knobs and throttles and switches? Don’t touch a fuckin’ one of them.”
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### Author:  [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2010, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-aviation-quotes/535701/18 "2010-04-12T03:39:27Z")
> [@figure9](#):
>
> “Scratch three flattops!”
> From the Battle of Midway.
Close. Battle of the Coral Sea, before Midway: “Scratch one flattop!” It was the sinking of the Shoho. See [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Coral_Sea#Morning_strikes):
> [@](#):
>
> At 12:10, using a prearranged message to signal TF17 on the success of the mission, Lexington SBD pilot and squadron commander Robert E. Dixon radioed “Scratch one flat top! Signed Bob.”
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### Author:  [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2010, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-aviation-quotes/535701/19 "2010-04-12T03:56:38Z")
[QUOTE=_Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. …_[/QUOTE]
This is a very annoying line, and I wish it would die.
Flying IS dangerous - you are operating at heights and speeda inconsistant with survival (yes, that is stolen from someone) if damned near anything goes wrong - and things are noted for going wrong.
Fly all you want - skill and training will get you through (probably). Just don’t think it isn’t dangerous!
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### Author:  [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2010, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-aviation-quotes/535701/20 "2010-04-12T04:03:18Z")
“The first time I saw a jet, I shot it down.”
—Chuck Yeager
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