I saw this posted today......

[Tupac]

"When a Pilot Dies

Whenever we talk about a pilot who had been killed in a flying accident, we should all keep one thing in mind-
He called upon the sum of all of his knowledge and made a judgment.
He believed in it so strongly that he knowingly bet his life on it.
That his judgment was faulty is a tragedy, not stupidity.
Every instructor, supervisor and contemporary who ever
spoke to him had the opportunity to influence his judgement, so a little of all of us goes with every pilot we lose.

This was posted on a hangar wall."

Someone posted this on a board I frequent and I thought it was pretty profound, so I decided to share it.

[VonMessa]

 

[MaSonZ]

Very interesting!

[Dichotomy]

How about we just make sure you're not one of the ones that references to bro <S>

[mthrockmor]

Sobering view of the situation.

Boo

[EskimoJoe]

I wanted to give this a bump in light of recent events.

Found it hidden, nestled among my hundreds of hundreds of bookmarks.

[pipz]

very profound

[ozrocker]

I've always thought it was interesting that in Germany when a Luftwaffe
Pilot was KIA, they announced in Obituary (Death Card) that the Pilot
died a "Fliers Death".
You can find a lot of these "Death Cards" on line now, some
are fake, a lot are the real ones.
Many are from Private collections.

                                                                                                                  Oz

                             



                                                                                                                                       

[SirFrancis]

Well, what can I say.

My father, 71 years, got his right leg amputated a few days ago. Why...because of to much alcohol, cicarettes and unhealthy food.

I always looked up to him (and I still will!). I wanted to step in his footsteps. But I couldn´t.

He is still in hospital. He is losing his power to fight. He is frustrated. The doctor said its not going to end well. My mother is...tears very near.

My father was a fighter pilot in the German Luftwaffe. He flew the F-104 and the F-4. He was in Luke AFB/Phoenix between 1974-1978. He won a Top Gun award. He was a flight instructor and one of the best I ever met. And now its me who is near tears...

Dirk

ps: ignore my toejamty Nickname

ps2: found a qoute about my father: "Have any of you ever met Lothar Eickholt? Craziest damn German pilot I ever met. Wonder how many F-104's he managed to rack up? I know he punched out of at least one!" Dennis Sevakis Captain, USAF Former F-4 Driver

[bagrat]

and even though the pilot knows it is a bad situation before he takes off, some pilot's are pressured to go against their best judgement to endanger themselves by those who don't fully understand the dangers of weather phenomenon, but are simply in a rush...this was told to me as another reason for why pilot's of thousands of hours would ever find themselves in a risky situation.