“Mastery is the best goal because the rich can't buy it, the impatient can't rush it, the privileged can't inherit it, and nobody can steal it. You can only earn it through hard work. Mastery is the ultimate status.”
Derek Sivers, How to Live, 2021.
Any advice on flying to the Moon?
#studentpilot #perpetualpursuit #flying
“Despite my level of pilot certificates, I consider myself a 47-year student pilot. There is always more to learn.”
Sabrina Kipp, AOPA Pilot magazine March 2024.
www.aopa.org/news-and-med...
“They navigate with their stomach.”
Do you see the wind? Feel the AoA? Groove with gravity?
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/s...
“I hate it if someone calls me a thrillseeker or an adrenaline junkie because I am not. I like the whole planning.”
Felix Baumgartner, before his record-breaking 2012 skydive from the edge of space.
www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/o...
"An auto-landing never feels as good as doing it yourself, and a bot cannot write a truly informative and artful aviation article. A bot might get most of the facts right, but will always miss the feel, smell, and emotion of flying.”
Kevin Garrison avbrief.org/flying-is-an...
#flying #safety #riskmanagement
“The fundamental thing is you have to figure out an alternative to your problem and be willing to give up on a goal.”
John King. In a great article about 50 years of teaching flying to more people than anyone else ever.
www.ainonline.com/aviation-new...
“A year from now, you will wish you had started today.”
Karen Lamb
#mastery #deepwork #flying
“Where is your Self to be found?”
“Always in the deepest enchantment you have experienced.”
Hugo Von Hofmannsthal
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/o...
“The result is comparable to having a sky full of nearsighted pilots who are forbidden to wear corrective lenses.”
Worthwhile read. Let’s look after each other.
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/m...
Darren Pleasance, COE AOPA, in the cockpit.
#airmanship #flying
“What good pilots consistently do is perfect their foundational skills. They practice — they live — on airmanship. It’s courtesy, consistency, and core competency.”
Darren Pleasance, new President and CEO of AOPA, in Pursuit of Excellence, AOPA PILOT magazine March 2025.
#pertetualpursuit #flying #aerobatics #NoCompetition
“I fly for fun. No competition. No performances. But, I’m always striving to get better. So, an early morning, before a departure on the airlines, provided a perfect setting to get some seat time. …
airfactsjournal.com/2025/01/frid...
Blue Origin VP Jarrett Jones: “This is our first flight and we’ve prepared rigorously for it. But no amount of ground testing or mission simulations are a replacement for flying this rocket. It’s time to fly. No matter what happens, we’ll learn, refine, and apply that knowledge to our next launch.”
#flying #airmanship #pilotlife #mastery
“Nobody wants to listen to a concert — or be on a plane — when the leader is on high-voltage tension from beginning to end. You have to learn to breathe.”
Daniel Harding, Air France pilot and orchestral conductor.
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/09/a...
“The attainment of proficiency, the pushing of your skill with attention to the most delicate shades of excellence, is a matter of vital concern. Efficiency of a practically flawless kind may be reached naturally in the struggle for bread. But there is something beyond — a higher point, a subtle and unmistakable touch of love and pride beyond mere skill; almost an inspiration which gives to all work that finish which is almost art — which IS art.” Joseph Conrad, The Mirror of the Sea, 1906.
www.innerairmanship.com/blog/2024/12...
“But there is something beyond — a higher point, a subtle and unmistakable touch of love and pride beyond mere skill; almost an inspiration which gives to all work that finish which is almost art — which IS art.”
Joseph Conrad, on peak seamanship, 1906.
Best #flying Christmas tree ornament ever? Seen at Chandler Air Services in Phoenix. AZ.
#biplane #santa #aviation
#piloting #airspeed #flying
Fantastic article on something that sounds so good — “energy management” — but really is kinda squishy. It's good to understand, and useful for thinking about things like jet descents, but is not the precision tool we are looking for.
airfactsjournal.com/2023/01/ener...
Neil Armstrong, last public presentation, Starmus, 24 June 2011, island of Tenerife. Quote is from the 2014 book Starmus: 50 Years of Man in Space.
“Like that of Ulysses, each of our lives is a miniature Odyssey, going to new places, seeing new things, understanding new ideas, and each day penetrating the biggest unkown of all: tomorrow. For each of us it should be, and can be, an exciting voyage. Buen Viaje!”
Neil Armstrong. Starmus, 2011.
Great article on F1 driving ‘mental toolkit’
> Visualize important challenges in advance.
> Talk yourself through it.
> Prepare for the unexpected.
> Shift focus without breaking it.
> Find your motivation and flow.
> Remember to recharge.
www.nytimes.com/2024/11/23/w... #flow #innergame #F1
#flying
“From the day you’re born, you’re familiar with the force of gravity And then one day you’ll step off, and you’ll be free of it. And how can I describe that? I can’t put it into words. But once you’ve done it, you won’t be able to describe it either.”
www.nytimes.com/2024/11/20/s...
AI generated picture of Leonardo da Vinci sitting in a modern airliner.
Even Leonardo ‘once you have tasted flight’ da Vinci couldn’t foresee sidesticks!
#avgeek #AI hashtag fake drawing and fake quote!
Adapted from EUROCONTROL (2013). From Safety-I to Safety-II. A White Paper. Normal curve of performance showing accidents & incidents on the spectrum with routine and exceptional performance.
#humanfactors #safetyII #pilot #flying
Great illustration of where most research attention is focused. And yes, of course, accidents and incidents must be investigated. But how much more could we learn from studying the performance of great pilots?
(graphic from @stevenshorrock.bsky.social)
Winsuit flyer high over the countryside.
#Risk
“We’re very aware of how precious life is. What a gift it is. So we use it. It’s not up on a shelf still in its bubble wrap. Ours is all beat up and thrown in the corner. Its good. You should use something that you cherish.”
Jimmy Pouchert, in the 2024 move Fly. He died BASE jumping in 2021.
Seaplane landing on water
“The real meditation is how you live your life.”
Jon Kabat-Zinn
It’s a wonderful group of friendly folks who are only there because we love flying. Non-commercial member-run club.
Greater Boston Soaring Club L19 Birddog tow plane
“The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
(my photo, Sterling airport, Greater Boston Soaring Club L19 Birddog tow plane, this summer)
❝A machine doesn't improvise well because you cannot program a fear of death. Our survival instinct is our greatest source of inspiration.❞
Dr. Hugh Mann, played by Matt Damon, in the 2014 movie Interstellar, written by brothers Christopher & Jonathan Nolan.
🚀 collider.com/interstellar...
🤭
Thanks for the kind words. See you in the sky . . .
Seaplane over a foggy San Francisco
“As we took to the skies it seemed the aircraft was almost an extension of his body, carving its way over the water and through the air as if it already knew what inputs came next.”
Niki Britton, describing Aaron Singer fly a #seaplane. #AOPA #Pilot magazine, October 2024.
#flying #onewith
Amber Forte diving in a wingsuit
“For me, the least appealing side of BASE jumping is the fact that it is dangerous and scary. I hate the feeling of standing on a mountain and being super scared. It’s not about the fear or the danger or the risk. It’s about the love of flying.”
Amber Forte, 2024 movie Fly.
#wingsuit #flying #risk
