simplicity

Murphy was deeper than you guessed

By Dave English

“It is found that anything that can go wrong at sea generally does go wrong sooner or later.” This was written by Alfred Holt in 1877, in an engineering report on using steam engines at sea. The phrase has become known as ‘Murphy’s Law’ for reasons unclear. But the original report is deeper and more insightful than I ever would have guessed. The same paragraph also says, “Sufficient stress can hardly be laid on the advantages of simplicity.” “The human factor cannot be safely neglected in planning machinery.” “It is almost as bad to have too many parts as too … Continue reading Murphy was deeper than you guessed

Wiley Post on flying

By Dave English

Wiley Post was the first pilot to fly solo around the world, test pilot for the pressure suit, discovered the jet stream, worked on early autopilots. And apparently was deeply in touch with the inner art of airmanship. (Quote in his 1931 book Around the World in Eight Days written with H. Gatty.) His friend J. H. Conger once said, “He didn’t just fly an airplane, he put it on.”

Dale Masters on cockpit automation

By Dave English

I fly bare bones routinely, relying on sight and sound and feel in favor of expensive, complex, and distracting gizmos. ~ Dale Masters, 12,000 hours in gliders, instructor at Southern California Soaring Academy, writing in the June 2015 Soaring magazine.

The search for the simplicity of a single line

By Dave English

When I first started thinking about the Inner Art of Airmanship, I was looking for the common connections between all kinds of flying. Sometimes we find deeper truths that connect more diverse activities. Like how how search for the simplicity of a single line links a seventieth century French painter, Zen brush art, the trajectory of space missions, Formula 1’s racing line around a bend — and flying. See the wind, the energy, the traffic, and draw a line in the sky.