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When you come to a fork in the road, take it. – Yogi Berra All our dreams can come true – if we have the courage to pursue them. – Walt Disney Never interupt someone doing what you said couldn’t be done. – Amelia Earhart It’s all a gift. – Dick Karl (oncology surgeon and writer turned jet captain) The focus and the concentra- tion and the attention to detail that flying takes is a kind of meditation. I find it restful and engaging, and other things slip away. – Harrison Ford While passionate about f lying and our airplanes, we all know (often through harrowing experiences) that piloting isn’t all bubblegum, unicorns and sunshine-lollipops – as demon- strated by the vast proliferation of famous quotes emphasizing these axioms of aviation. The Cub is the safest airplane in the world; it can just bare- ly kill you. – Max Stanley Airplanes are near perfect; all they lack is the ability to forgive. – Richard Collins In theory, there’s no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is. – Yogi Berra Aviation in itself is not inher- ently dangerous. But to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect. – Captain A. G. Lamplugh Instrument flying is an un- natural act, probably punish- able by God. – Gordon Baxter An airplane might disappoint any pilot, but it'll never surprise a good one. – Len Morgan Rule books are paper – they will not cushion a sudden meeting of stone and metal. – Ernest K. Gann We made too many wrong mistakes. – Yogi Berra He who demands everything that his aircraft can give him is a pilot; he that demands one iota more is a fool. – Len Morgan There are two kinds of air- planes – those you fly, and those that fly you. – Ernest K. Gann If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month. – Theodore Roosevelt There is no such thing as a natural-born pilot. – Chuck Yeager Nowadays, many think, “the future isn’t what it used to be,” which is cer- tainly true (see “Participation Trophy,” September 2019, T &T). But “if the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be.” Most of the stories in this column end on a humorous, lesson- learned, educational or emo- tional note, and this one is no different. So, for many, this ending will seem like, “It’s like déjà vu all over again” (those were three more of Yogi’s). These next two express this author’s position quite well. Harmony of muscle, mind and mechanism. Flight seems an extension of one’s own body. – Charles A Lindbergh I am a creature of the sky and that drives both my flying and writing. – Richard Bach I wish that we could print the quot- able things I’ve heard in the cockpit at work. Heck, I wish I could remember half of them. Suffice it to say that be- fore the days of political correctness, when pilots were more likely to re- lease the eloquent philosopher from within, many pearls of wisdom were born during red-eyes, trans-cons and at hotel bars. Which we all know are the true birthplaces of not only exis- tential moments but answers to the world’s problems, political epiphanies and to most child rearing and marital discord issues. Many of the long-f light and bar-born axioms of aviation seem fuzzily to me and not very remem- ber-y. Perhaps this explains why the “90 percent mental; the other half is physical” math is off a bit as well. Ap- parently, our Jedi-like intuition and mindpowers can be diminished under certain conditions. But don’t quote me on that. Kevin Dingman has been flying for more than 40 years. He’s an ATP typed in the B737 and DC9 with 24,000 hours in his logbook. A retired Air Force major, he flew the F-16 and later performed as an USAF Civil Air Patrol Liaison Officer. He flies volun- teer missions for the Christian orga- niz tion Wings of Mercy, is employed by a major airline, and owns and operates a Beechcraft Duke.Contact Kevin at dinger10d@gmail.com. April 2020 / TWIN & TURBINE • 29