Ernest K. Gann quotes

Flying is hypnotic and all pilots are willing victims to the spell.
-- Ernest K. Gann

#Flying #Pilots #Victim

Flying is hypnotic and all pilots are victims to the spell. Their world is like a magic island in which the factors of life and death assume their proper values. Thinking becomes clear because there are no earthly foibles or embellishments to confuse it.
-- Ernest K. Gann

#Thinking #Islands #Life And Death

Fear breeds upon itself because it is a hermaphrodite capable of endless reproduction. Fear is a contagious disease, spreading from its first victim to others in the vicinity until it is powerful enough to take charge of a group, in which event it becomes panic. Fear is the afterbirth of reason and calculation. It takes time to recuperate from fear.
-- Ernest K. Gann

#Powerful #Fear #Groups

It's remarkable how quickly a good and favorable wind can sweep away the maddening frustrations of shore living.
-- Ernest K. Gann

#Frustration #Wind #Sailing

The air is annoyingly potted with a multitude of minor vertical disturbances which sicken the passengers and keep us captives of our seat belts. We sweat in the cockpit, though much of the time we fly with the side windows open. The airplanes smell of hot oil and simmering aluminum, disinfectant, feces, leather, and puke ... the stewardesses, short-tempered and reeking of vomit, come forward as often as they can for what is a breath of comparatively fresh air.
-- Ernest K. Gann

#Airplane #Sweat #Oil

The emergencies you train for almost never happen. It's the one you can't train for that kills you.
-- Ernest K. Gann

#Emergencies #Train

It's when things are going just right that you'd better be suspicious. There you are, fat as can be. The whole world is yours and you're the answer to the Wright brothers' prayers. You say to yourself, nothing can go wrong ... all my trespasses are forgiven. Best you not believe it.
-- Ernest K. Gann

#Brother #Prayer #Believe

Nobody who gets too damned relaxed builds up much flying time.
-- Ernest K. Gann

#Flying #Relaxed

And he supposed it might not be the best of days. But then, he was flying the mails and was not expected to squat on the ground like a frightened canary every time there was a cloud in the sky. If a pilot showed an obvious preference for flying only in the best conditions he soon found himself looking for work. This was the way of his life and he had always ascended when others had found excuse to keep their feet on the ground.
-- Ernest K. Gann

#Clouds #Sky #Feet

Electronics were rascals, and they lay awake nights trying to find some way to screw you during the day. You could not reason with them. They had a brain and intestines, but no heart.
-- Ernest K. Gann

#Heart #Night #Brain

There are two kinds of airplanes - those you fly and those that fly you . . . You must have a distinct understanding at the very start as to who is the boss.
-- Ernest K. Gann

#Airplane #Two #Boss

Rule books are paper - they will not cushion a sudden meeting of stone and metal.
-- Ernest K. Gann

#Book #Paper #Stones

There are airmen and there are pilots: the first being part bird whose view from aloft is normal and comfortable, a creature whose brain and muscles frequently originate movements which suggest flight; and then there are pilots who regardless of their airborne time remain earth-loving bipeds forever. When these latter unfortunates, because of one urge or another, actually make an ascension, they neither anticipate nor relish the event and they drive their machines with the same graceless labor they inflict upon the family vehicle.
-- Ernest K. Gann

#Views #Bird #Forever

Anyone can do the job when things are going right. In this business we play for keeps.
-- Ernest K. Gann

#Jobs #Play

The men in this book are fictitious characters but their counterparts can be found in cockpits all over the world. Now they are flying a war. Tomorrow they will be flying a peace, for, regardless of the world's condition, flying is their life.
-- Ernest K. Gann

#War #Book #Character

He knew that we gave constant lip service to the dictates of safety and howled like Christians condemned to the arena if any compromise were made of it. He knew we were seekers after ease, suspicious, egotistic, and stubborn to a fault. He also knew that none of us would have continued our careers unless we had always been, and still were, helpless before this opportunity to take a chance.
-- Ernest K. Gann

#Christian #Opportunity #Careers

If we slide into one of those rare moments of military honesty, we realize that the technical demands of modern warfare are so complex a considerable percentage of our material is bound to malfunction even before it is deployed against a foe. We no longer waste manpower by carrying the flag into battle. Instead we need battalions of electronic engineers to keep the terrible machinery grinding.
-- Ernest K. Gann

#Honesty #Military #Battle

MaCleod, since you've flown the SeaBee a lot you'll understand when I say it was the only airplane I ever owned that you could put in a dive, loose a cylinder and stall out!
-- Ernest K. Gann

#Airplane #Cylinders #Aviation

I want a boat that drinks 6, eats 4, and sleeps 2.
-- Ernest K. Gann

#Sleep #Want #Boat