Pilot Quotes

“There are all kinds of silences and each of them means a different thing. There is the silence that comes with morning in a forest, and this is different from the silence of a sleeping city. There is silence after a rainstorm, and before a rainstorm, and these are not the same. There is the silence of emptiness, the silence of fear, the silence of doubt. There is a certain silence that can emanate from a lifeless object as from a chair lately used, or from a piano with old dust upon its keys, or from anything that has answered to the need of a man, for pleasure or for work. This kind of silence can speak. Its voice may be melancholy, but it is not always so; for the chair may have been left by a laughing child or the last notes of the piano may have been raucous and gay. Whatever the mood or the circumstance, the essence of its quality may linger in the silence that follows. It is a soundless echo.”
― Beryl Markham, West with the Night

“Don't have to see," the pilot grunted. "Olga knows the way."
"Funny name for an aircraft," Grace commented. "Is it after your wife?"
"My gun."
Grace stared at him. "You named your plane after a gun?"
"It was a very good gun.”
― Gordon Korman, Vespers Rising

“This is stolen? We're in a stolen jet?"
"Not stolen," said Donegan Bane from the co-pilot's seat.
"Almost stolen," Gracious corrected.
"Semi-stolen," said Donegan.
"Quasi-stolen," said Gracious.
Aurora's frown did not turn upside down. "So is it stolen or not?"
Donegan and Gracious hesitated.
"Yes," they both said together.”
― Derek Landy, The Maleficent Seven

“Growing up, I always had a soldier mentality. As a kid I wanted to be a soldier, a fighter pilot, a covert agent, professions that require a great deal of bravery and risk and putting oneself in grave danger in order to complete the mission. Even though I did not become all those things, and unless my predisposition, in its youngest years, already had me leaning towards them, the interest that was there still shaped my philosophies. To this day I honor risk and sacrifice for the good of others - my views on life and love are heavily influenced by this.”
― Criss Jami, Healology

“And like no other sculpture in the history of art, the dead engine and dead airframe come to life at the touch of a human hand, and join their life with the pilot's own.”
― Richard Bach, A Gift of Wings

“Dr. Talbon was struck by another very important thing. It all hung together. The stories Cheryl told — even though it was upsetting to think people could do stuff like that — they were not disjointed They were not repetitive in terms of "I've heard this before". It was not just she'd someone trying consciously or unconsciously to get attention. really processed them out and was done with them. She didn't come up with them again [after telling the story once and dealing with it]. Once it was done, it was done. And I think that was probably the biggest factor for me in her believability. I got no sense that she was using these stories to make herself a really interesting person to me so I'd really want to work with her, or something. Or that she was just living in this stuff like it was her life. Once she dealt with it and processed it, it was gone. We just went on to other things. 'Throughout the whole thing, emotionally Cheryl was getting her life together. Parts of her were integrating where she could say,"I have a sense that some particular alter has folded in with some basic alter", and she didn't bring it up again. She didn't say that this alter has reappeared to cause more problems. That just didn't happen. The therapist had learned from training and experience that when real integration occurs, it is permanent and the patient moves on.”
― Cheryl Hersha, Secret Weapons: How Two Sisters Were Brainwashed to Kill for Their Country

“Pilot nods with a small smile. "I've noticed."
"Noticed what?" I ask with a smidge of attitude.
"You're bolder than before.”
― Christine Riccio, Again, But Better

“The world was used to enormous egos in artists, actors, entertainers of all sorts, in politicians, sports figures, and even journalists, because they had such familiar and convenient ways to show them off. But that slim young man over there in uniform, with the enormous watch on his wrist and the withdrawn look on his face, that young officer who is so shy that he can’t even open his mouth unless the subject is flying— that young pilot— well, my friends, his ego is even bigger!— so big, it’s breathtaking!”
― Tom Wolfe, The Right Stuff

“Пока Сакаи летал к чужакам, он успел привести свой отсек модуля в «жилой» вид — то есть развесить по стенам черно-белые голограммы изъязвленных кратерами каменных пустынь, инопланетных болот и джунглей, разрушенных городов и просто затянутого дымами горизонта. Большинство незнакомых с Винни людей эта «готическая панорама» вгоняла в депрессию с первого же взгляда в отличие от самого пилота, любившего под настроение полюбоваться «местами, где я не погиб».”
― Ольга Громыко, Космобиолухи

“If you really wanna fly, learn to befriend the winds.”
― Curtis Tyrone Jones

“Within the hour, I'll land, and strangely enough I'm in no hurry to have it pass. I haven't the slightest desire to sleep. My eyes are no longer salted stones. There's not an ache in my body. The night is cool and safe. I want to sit quietly in this cockpit and let the realization of my completed flight sink in. Europe is below; Paris, just over the earth's curve in the night ahead - a few minutes more of flight. It's like struggling up a mountain after a rare flower, and then, when you have it within arm's reach, realizing that satisfaction and happiness lie more in the finding than in the plucking. Plucking and withering are inseparable. I want to prolong this culminating experience of my flight. I almost wish Paris were a few more hours away. It's a shame to land with the night so clear and so much fuel in my tanks”
― Charles A. Lindbergh, The Spirit of St. Louis

“Don't you think...doesn't it seem sometimes like life is like a plane?...And we're all piloos, you know, of our own planes. When things are going smoothly then we're, like, on autopilot, but sometimes things get a little, well, turbulent and then we have to land the plane on our own..."What about the air traffic control?"...Well, sure. Sometimes the guy is helpful, but maybe he's drunk?...Or maybe there's this big fog so you just put your hands on the controls and look for the runway lights and do your best. On your own.”
― Gayle Friesen, The Isabel Factor

“Be a pilot upon thoughts. Never let thoughts as a pilot upon you.”
― Ehsan Sehgal

“I'm not afraid of flying. Once you get on a plane, you hand your life over to the pilots and hope they know what the hell they're doing. If you reach your destination in one piece, you get your life back, and on you go - Russian Roulette with wings.”
― Stewart Stafford

“In the quiet, I talked to my friend, who happened to be a T-33, and asked point-blank the questions I could never answer.

'What are you, airplane? What is it about you and all your wide family that has made so many men leave all they know and come to you? Why do they waste good human love and concern on you who are nothing but so many pounds of steel and aluminum and gasoline and hydraulic fluid?”
― Richard Bach, A Gift of Wings

“I am the test pilot of High Altitude Observatory Disease (HAOD).”
― Steven Magee

“I find it concerning that by the time I flew on a new Boeing 737 Max airplane that numerous pilots knew that it had uncontrolled descent issues that had already caused a fatal crash.”
― Steven Magee

“Somebody with a flair for small cynicism once said, 'We live and do not learn.' But I have learned some things.
I have learned that if you must leave a place that you have lived in and loved and where all your yesterdays are buried deep -- leave it any way except a slow way, leave it the fastest way you can. Never turn back and never believe than an hour you remember is a better hour because it is dead. Passed years seem safe ones, vanquished ones, while the future lives in a cloud, formidable from a distance. The cloud clears as you enter it. I have learned this, but like everyone, I learned it late.”
― Beryl Markham, West with the Night

“Somebody with a flair for small cynicism once said, 'We live and do not learn.' But I have learned some things.
I have learned that if you must leave a place that you have lived in and loved and where all your yesterdays are buried deep -- leave it any way except a slow way, leave it the fastest way you can. Never turn back and never believe that an hour you remember is a better hour because it is dead. Passed years seem safe ones, vanquished ones, while the future lives in a cloud, formidable from a distance. The cloud clears as you enter it. I have learned this, but like everyone, I learned it late.”
― Beryl Markham

“You are the pilot of your life. So fly through the sky.”
― Angel Moreira

“Stephen Paddock had a pilot's license and flew small airplanes in the past. The altitudes that he flew at and whether he used oxygen above 10,000 feet in un-pressurized planes to prevent Cerebral Hypoxia from occurring is unknown. The highest altitude that he has been exposed to in an un-pressurized environment is a mystery. In 2017 he committed the worst mass shooting in modern USA history, killing many and wounding hundreds.”
― Steven Magee

“Without the pilot, there is no flying from one place to another.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“Strap yourself into the jump-seat, make sure your harnesses are pulled really tightly, and let Scott ‘Sunshine’ Gibson give you the flight of your life. Join him as he meets up with some old and new comrades, Ryan ‘shut-eye’ Davis, Lawrence ‘sticky’ LaBelle, Jack ‘crackerjack’ McCleary, Carson ‘sleepy’ Sandmann, John Edward ‘long john’ Silver, and Sebastian ‘Atlas’ Williams, aboard a Beech 18, Boeing B-29 Superfortress, Boeing 314 Clipper, and a Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer and share in his adventures from Newfoundland to Mexico to Malaysia in the late 1960’s. Hang on to your hats boys. It’s time to fly.

Extract from 'Short Finals”
― BH McKechnie

“The pilot knew this about her mechanic; she would find Caydee sleeplessly working on the mech, because it was the only thing she could fix. She couldn't close wounds, or staunch blood, or light the sky or mend hearts, so she'd be working in a fever to get the mech back into working order. The Pilot wasn't sure where she learned all this, but she knew. She wanted to see it, and the reasons for that were harder to explain.”
― Blake Jessop, Glitter + Ashes: Queer Tales of a World That Wouldn’t Die

“Tim Flaherty of Milwaukee worked with Simmons Airlines and Delta Airlines during his career as an air transport pilot.”
― Tim Flaherty Milwaukee

“There are many promises in the word of God to get you through the storms of life. Just like any pilot gets trained to fly with their instruments and trust their instruments when they cannot see anything out of the airplane window, likewise we need to trust the promises of God and not rely on our feelings, emotions or instincts when in a storm of doubt, fear, worry or discouragement.”
― Paddick Van Zyl, This Stormy Life

“Your soul does not die when your body dies because your soul was never in your body in the first place. It was always a remote controller located elsewhere, just as a drone pilot is never physically in his drone.”
― James Axel, The Christian Detective: A Project Proving the Christian Truth

“You feel like you're the king of creation in an A-10. You're up front and the plane itself--wings, engines, rudders--is way back. You sit at the end of the long snout in a fishbowl wide and bright to the world and the only thing in your head-up display is a little rubbery smudge of nose. It's really just you, slung out there. That's why pilots like Leo Pell loved the ship; you really fly her, you're really airborne, on the wind. It's World War II stuff, Jugs and Bostons lowlevel over the hedgerows of occupied Europe.”
― Stephen Hunter, The Day Before Midnight

“Night flying over the charted country by the aid of instruments and radio guidance can still be a lonely business, but to fly in unbroken darkness without even the cold companionship of a pair of ear-phones or the knowledge that somewhere ahead are lights and life and a well-marked airport is something more than just lonely. It is at times unreal to the point where the existence of other people seems not even a reasonable probability. The hills, the forests, the rocks, and the plains are one with the darkness, and the darkness is infinite. The earth is no more your planet than is a distant star — if a star is shining; the plane is your planet and you are its sole inhabitant.”
― Beryl Markham, West with the Night

“Sally was soon courted by another pilot, who eventually walked on the moon, but her heart belonged to Eddie Bama, who had hung it.”
― Jimmy Buffett, Where Is Joe Merchant?