Flight Deck Quotes

I was a child of World War Two. I saw films of pilots taking off from aircraft carriers and decided that was the only thing I wanted to do. And it had to be flying from sea carriers. Airfields were not enough.

Yes, I am a pilot. I am a flight instructor and a commercial pilot.

A plane is of no use without the man or woman who flies it!

As a child, I had the opportunity to meet the captain onboard a British Airways flight. It was so exciting to see the cockpit and controls. I was in awe of the captain, and he stamped my log book, which I still have to this day.

I don't play a lot of games. I play flight simulators, mostly.

My first inclination was toward flying and being a pilot.

I wasn't a Pan Am pilot or any other kind of pilot.

When I was up on my first flight, we were really putting it together. So, I was essentially a construction worker.

My job during the EVAs, the spacewalks, is to act as the inside coordinator. I remain on the aft flight deck of the shuttle, and I act in a manner to help the gentlemen outside, my fellow crewmates, who are performing the EVA tasks.

There are different stages when you fly. The first stage is the dollhouse effect, seeing everything on Earth like it's a model. Suddenly, all of your concerns seem very small.

Peter Rodrick was one of only around 4,000 men in the world qualified to land jets on a carrier after dark.

I slept just floating in the middle of the flight deck, the upper deck of the space shuttle.

Dad went to Canada to learn how to fly with the Royal Canadian Air Force. He took me on my first airplane ride, where I could have a hand on the stick.

It's, I mean, for me, it's the same as training with my crewmembers. We share the same first part of the flight. We all go together. It's the most critical part of the flight, the ascent.

When I was in the gunner's bubble of a B25 bomber, taking off from an aircraft carrier 100 miles off the coast of San Diego, I remember saying to myself how amazing it was to get the chance to do that.

I loved flying as much as I thought I would and continue to fly aircraft.