Chuck Yeager Quotes

If you want to grow old as a pilot, you've got to know when to push it, and when to back off.

There's simply no substitute for experience in terms of aviation safety.

When you design it, think how you would feel if you had to fly it! Safety first!

I realized how important it was to know something about aviation, and it was something I was interested in, so I followed my brother's footsteps and obtained my pilot's license.

During my career as an airline pilot, I had the opportunity to be a check and training captain. Part of this job was to train and test experienced pilots to ensure that they had the necessary knowledge and skills to safely and efficiently operate those magnificent big jets.

I learned to fly an airplane, and had my own airplane during the 1960s.

As a military pilot and a test pilot, handling unusual situations and aircraft malfunctions was part of the business.

I was always afraid of dying. Always. It was my fear that made me learn everything I could about my airplane and my emergency equipment, and kept me flying respectful of my machine and always alert in the cockpit.

Pilots are not the threat.

I learned the mechanics of how to fly a plane, but I never lifted a plane off the ground.

I think aerobatic pilots make the best pilots because you know, you're just so confident in an aeroplane. If you're gonna get into trouble, I'd rather be with someone that's a skilled aerobatic pilot.

I never intended to become a professional pilot. But, as I became more curious about aircraft, and, well, not being John Travolta, I realized that the only way I was ever going to fly a jet is if I got a job.

When you're asked to fly a 747 you better at least be able to fly a Piper cub.

The thing is helicopters are different from airplanes An airplane by it's nature wants to fly, and if not interfered with too strongly by unusual events or incompetent piloting, it will fly.

I feel very confident that Americans flying in the air are safe and that only under the most dire of circumstances would our pilots ever even request permission to do that.

Ninety-nine percent of pilots that go up never have engine failure, and the 1 percent that do usually land it. But if you're up in the air and something goes wrong, you pull that parachute, and the whole plane goes down slowly.

I fly my own airplane, and I have since 1960. I rarely fly anywhere other than my own airplane.

Dad endorsed my learning to fly so he would have a live-in pilot, one he could get in touch with at any time.

There's no such thing as a natural-born pilot.

I've spent my life as an airplane mechanic, pilot, aircraft manufacturer and airline CEO who never lost a life or an airplane. I am considerate of the risk we take every time we fly. I also know we need to fly and always to improve safety.

When I get on a plane, I don't want a laid-back pilot. I want a pilot who is a control freak, who is paying attention to every single detail of his job.

My first inclination was toward flying and being a pilot.

They say any landing you can walk away from is a good one.

At that time [1909] the chief engineer was almost always the chief test pilot as well. That had the fortunate result of eliminating poor engineering early in aviation.

I have often been asked what I think about at the moment of take-off. Of course, no pilot sits and feels his pulse as he flies. He has to be part of the machine. If he thinks of anything but the task in hand, then trouble is probably just around the corner.