I don't think I possess any skill that anyone else doesn't have. I've just had perhaps more of an opportunity, more of an exposure, and been fortunate to survive a lot of situations that many other weren't so lucky to make it.

It's not how close can you get to the ground, but how precise can you fly the airplane. If you feel so careless with you life that you want to be the world's lowest flying aviator you might do it for a while. But there are many great former friends of mine who are no longer with us simply because they cut their margins to close.

Sometimes I watch myself fly. For in the history of human flight it is not yet so very late; and a man may still wonder once in a while and ask: how is it that I, poor earth-habitituated animal, can fly?

Any young boy can nowadays explain human flight — "mechanistically": " . . . and to climb you shove the throttle all the way forward and pull back just a little on the stick. . . . " One might as well explain music by saying that the further over to the right you hit the piano the higher it will sound... The makings of a flight are not in the levers, wheels, and pedals BUT in the nervous system of the pilot: physical sensations, bits of textbook, deep-rooted instincts, burnt-child memories of trouble aloft, hangar talk.

Between the amateur and the professional . . . there is a difference not only in degree but in kind.It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds. The skillful man is, within the function of his skill, a different psychological organization. . . . A tennis player or a watchmaker or an airline pilot is an automatism but he is also criticism and wisdom.

Accuracy means something to me. It's vital to my sense of values. I've learned not to trust people who are inaccurate. Every aviator knows that if mechanics are inaccurate, they get lost — sometimes killed. There is only one rule - Rule One - TNB - Trust No Bastard - they are all trying to kill you. In my profession,MY life, itself depends on accuracy.

This thing we call luck is merely professionalism and attention to detail, it's your awareness of everything that is going on around you, it's how well you know and understand your airplane and your own limitations. Mistakes are inevitable in aviation, especially when one is still learning new things. The trick is to not make the mistake that will kill you.Luck is the sum total of your of abilities as an aviator. If you think your luck is running low, you'd better get busy and make some more. Work harder, Pay more attention. Study your AFM more. Do better preflights.

The way I see it, you can either fly for a living or you live to fly. Me, I'd rather live for my passion for flying....

"Where Legends Land, that's where, Dreams Take off" ~ Don Woon

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CREDITS: *** SPECIAL THANKS TO JAE ***