If you can walk away from a landing, it's a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it's an outstanding landing.
Interpretation
A successful landing is one where everyone walks away safely, and an exceptional one allows for continued use of the aircraft.
This quote from Chuck Yeager emphasizes the significance of safety in aviation. It suggests that the true measure of a landing's success is not just about completing the landing itself, but also about ensuring the safety of everyone on board. If the aircraft can be used again the next day, it marks an extraordinary outcome, highlighting the importance of proper landing techniques and safety protocols in aviation.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a flight safety seminar to highlight the importance of safe landings.
I have flown in just about everything, with all kinds of pilots in all parts of the world - British, French, Pakistani, Iranian, Japanese, Chinese - and there wasn't a dime's worth of difference between any of them except for one unchanging, certain fact: the best, most skillful pilot has the most experience.
The best pilots fly more than the others; that's why they're the best.
There's no such thing as a natural-born pilot.
When I was picked to fly the X-1, it was my duty to fly it, and I did.
It wasn't that the X-1 would kill you, it was the systems in the X-1 that would kill you.
All that I am ... I owe to the Air Force.
Safety and security don't just happen, they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear.
There is no safety for honest men, but by believing all possible evil of evil men, and by acting with promptitude, decision, and steadiness on that belief.
How many more times do we have to come to terms with death before we find safety?" he asked. He waited a few minutes, but the three of us didn't say anything. He continued: "Every time people come at us with the intention of killing us, I close my eyes and wait for death. Even though I am still alive, I feel like each time I accept death, part of me dies. Very soon I will completely die and all that will be left is my empty body walking with you. It will be quieter than I am.
Please join me in applauding the ESA - European Space Agency’s historic efforts with the Rosetta Mission and landing a spacecraft on rotating comet. It may seem like a work of fiction, but it is very real, very impressive, and will help us to further uncover the mysteries surrounding the formation of the solar system. They made a beautiful short film using an imaginary landscape to illustrate today’s historic feat.
I've always believed that no officer's life, regardless of rank, is of such great value to his country that he should seek safety in the rear... Officers should be forward with their men at the point of impact.
Reply when questioned on the safety of the polio vaccine he developed: It is safe, and you can't get safer than safe.
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