And we do appreciate that!

We joke about it though, one popular joke goes something like this, "Anyone can Fly, you aren't paying me for the flight, you are paying me for the safe landing at the end."

Then there's the guy (it might be Charlie Sheen tomorrow!) who jumps off the 80th floor of a sky scraper, for 79 floors he thinks he can fly, it's the sudden stop at the bottom that will ruin your day.

Remember the line from the movie Toy Story, when Woody says to Buzz Lightyear, "That's not flying, that's falling, with style."

Nobody worries about the take off, or cruise, it's the landings that count. You want to be able to log just as many "landings" as takeoffs, any landing you can walk away from is considered a good one.


Way back when I went through USAF Pilot Training, I had to fly a low-level mission with a Lt. Col. instructor who had been an A10 pilot (the A10 only does low level bombing missions) and so he says to me, "OK, before we go fly, tell me, what is the Threat today?"

I think about this for a minute and I say, "Well, we will be going 500 mph only 500 feet off the ground, so I guess if we hit a buzzard we are toast, Buzzards are a threat."

He says, "No, what is the Threat?!"

I think for another minute and say, "Well, we will be in uncontrolled airspace, down low, I guess some idiot in a Cessna could be out there and we might hit him."

He says, "NO! WHAT IS THE THREAT??!!"

I'm lost, so I say, "I don't know, what else is there in West Texas?"

He says, "The GROUND! The GROUND is ALWAYS the THREAT!! DON'T HIT THE GROUND!!"

True enough. Going 500 mph at 500 feet in the hills of west Texas, it only takes about 2 seconds looking down at your chart to go from being a hero to a smoking hole. The Air Force has lost plenty of pilots on training missions who flew a good jet into the ground while being distracted by something else.


All you pilot wannabee's remember this; Gravity's a bitch, don't hit the ground.

;^)