Airmanship Quotes

Chris Hadfield on fear

By Dave English

“A lot of people live in fear because they haven’t figured out how you’re going to react when faced with a certain set of circumstances. I’ve come to terms with this by looking deeply into whatever makes me fearful—what are the key elements that get the hairs up on the back of my neck—and then figuring out what I can do about it. Even if the fear-inducing event doesn’t happen, you feel much more at peace because you know you have a plan. It’s a learned behaviour, but I think it’s an effective one. Don’t ostrich it. Then, when you … Continue reading Chris Hadfield on fear

Can you take it?

By Dave English

There’s some excellent airmanship advice in an article about the U.S. Coast Guard in Alaska (The Red Bulletin, Sept 2016). It’s from helicopter pilot Lt. John Hess (in the picture), who has been awarded the Captain Frank Ericsson Award, the Distinguished Flying Cross, and saved a bunch of lives by flying many extreme rescues. He was asked, how does your crew prepare for tricky missions? He said: By critiquing each other. Even after simple maneuvers, like recovering empty rescue baskets. Anyone who can’t take criticism puts others at risk. Criticism is tough to take. I know. I’ve gotten plenty! But maybe if … Continue reading Can you take it?

Elliot Seguin on the perpetual pursuit

By Dave English

Elliot Sequin is an experimental test pilot working for Mooney Aircraft, the founder and pilot of Wasabi Air Racing, and learnt his craft at Scaled Composites at the Mojave Air & Space Port, Mojave, California. He shares his considerable passion of flying in this cool video.

Misty Copeland on the perpetual pursuit

By Dave English

Misty Copeland is a ballet dancer for American Ballet Theatre. Last year she became the first African American woman to be promoted to principal dancer at a major American ballet company. She knows something about the perpetual pursuit: The full quote, from an interview in Bloomberg Businessweek magazine, 4 August 2016: “There’s no taking days off. We’re as good as our last performance, and you’re constantly working to be better every day. So there’s not a lot of time to kind of sit back and lose that fire. Once you lose it, it’s kind of over and you retire, because the audience sees it, if you’re not keeping … Continue reading Misty Copeland on the perpetual pursuit

Your only competition

By Dave English

The most insightful part of this super cool article (and video) is at the end:   “Ultimately, your only competition is yourself.” Jason Stephens, owner of Arizona Soaring Five-time national US glider aerobatics champion, who is described here as the “most accomplished American competition aerobatic glider pilot of his generation.” Quote in AOPA Pilot magazine, Zen Masters, July 2016. “The motivation is to get better. And learn more. And be more precise. And just enjoy it too.“ Lukas von Atzigen Unlimited glider aerobatics pilot