Royal Caledon Air Force (RCAF)
Altitude with Attitude: A Second Life® Group of the Independent State of Caledon
Rules to live by
1. Every take-off is optional. Every landing is mandatory.
2. If you push the stick forward, the houses get bigger. If you pull the stick back, they get smaller. That is, unless you keep pulling the stick all the way back, then they get bigger again.
3. Flying isn’t dangerous. Crashing is what’s dangerous.
4. It’s always better to be down here wishing you were up there than up there wishing you were down here.
5. The only time you have too much fuel is when you’re on fire.
6. The propeller is just a big fan in front of the plane used to keep the pilot cool. When it stops, you can actually watch the pilot start sweating.
7. When in doubt, hold on to your altitude. No one ever collided with the sky.
8. A “good” landing is one from which you can walk away. A “great” landing is one after which they can use the plane again.
9. Learn from the mistakes of others. You won’t live long enough to make them all yourself.
10. You know you’ve landed with the wheels up if it takes full power to taxi to the ramp.
11. The probability of survival is inversely proportional to the angle of arrival. Large angle of arrival, small probability of survival and vice versa.
12. Stay out of clouds. The silver lining everyone keeps talking about might be another aeroplane going in the opposite direction. Mountains have also been known to hide out in clouds.
13. Always try to keep the number of landings you make equal to the number of take-off’s you’ve made.
14. There are three simple rules for making a smooth landing. Unfortunately no one knows what they are.
15. You start with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck.
16. If the pilot turns to you and says how can I concentrate on flying this damn thing with all that screaming coming from back there, things are not at all as they should be.
17. If all you can see out the window is ground that’s going round and round and all you can hear is commotion coming from the passenger compartment, things are not at all as they should be.
18. In the ongoing battle between objects made of aluminium going hundreds of kilometres per hour and the ground going zero kilometres per hour, the ground has yet to lose.
19. Good judgement comes from experience. Unfortunately, the experience usually comes from bad judgement.
20. It’s always a good idea to keep the pointy end going forward as much as possible.
21. Keep looking around. There’s always something you’ve missed.
22. Remember, gravity is not just a good idea. It’s the law. And it’s not subject to repeal.
23. The four most useless things to a pilot are the altitude above you, runway behind you, gas back at the airport, and a tenth of a second ago.
24. There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, There are, however, no old, bold pilots
2. If you push the stick forward, the houses get bigger. If you pull the stick back, they get smaller. That is, unless you keep pulling the stick all the way back, then they get bigger again.
3. Flying isn’t dangerous. Crashing is what’s dangerous.
4. It’s always better to be down here wishing you were up there than up there wishing you were down here.
5. The only time you have too much fuel is when you’re on fire.
6. The propeller is just a big fan in front of the plane used to keep the pilot cool. When it stops, you can actually watch the pilot start sweating.
7. When in doubt, hold on to your altitude. No one ever collided with the sky.
8. A “good” landing is one from which you can walk away. A “great” landing is one after which they can use the plane again.
9. Learn from the mistakes of others. You won’t live long enough to make them all yourself.
10. You know you’ve landed with the wheels up if it takes full power to taxi to the ramp.
11. The probability of survival is inversely proportional to the angle of arrival. Large angle of arrival, small probability of survival and vice versa.
12. Stay out of clouds. The silver lining everyone keeps talking about might be another aeroplane going in the opposite direction. Mountains have also been known to hide out in clouds.
13. Always try to keep the number of landings you make equal to the number of take-off’s you’ve made.
14. There are three simple rules for making a smooth landing. Unfortunately no one knows what they are.
15. You start with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck.
16. If the pilot turns to you and says how can I concentrate on flying this damn thing with all that screaming coming from back there, things are not at all as they should be.
17. If all you can see out the window is ground that’s going round and round and all you can hear is commotion coming from the passenger compartment, things are not at all as they should be.
18. In the ongoing battle between objects made of aluminium going hundreds of kilometres per hour and the ground going zero kilometres per hour, the ground has yet to lose.
19. Good judgement comes from experience. Unfortunately, the experience usually comes from bad judgement.
20. It’s always a good idea to keep the pointy end going forward as much as possible.
21. Keep looking around. There’s always something you’ve missed.
22. Remember, gravity is not just a good idea. It’s the law. And it’s not subject to repeal.
23. The four most useless things to a pilot are the altitude above you, runway behind you, gas back at the airport, and a tenth of a second ago.
24. There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, There are, however, no old, bold pilots
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Zoe Connolly on -
Hee! I love these! Thanks for posting ;)
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Permalink Reply by Sin "Biggles" Trenton on
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Indeed, great rules!
Rule 15 is a generically good one, think I'm going to paint that on the fuselage. Or tatoo on me heinie.:)
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Permalink Reply by Air Vice-Marshall Pearse on -
Brilliant!
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Permalink Reply by Cornelius Fanshaw on -
I can see I shall have to introduce you to Pilot Officer Prune, a legend in the RAF during the war.
I couldn't find much on the net other than this:-
http://www.content-delivery.co.uk/aviation/airfields/prune/
He featured in TEE EMM the monthly RAF Training Memorandum during the 40s.
TEE EMM is actually a good read if you are into that kind of thing, full of technical and combat tips, but written in a humorous way.
http://www.sparkes.net/Edward/teeemmindex.htm
I picked up a cd with the set from here:-
http://www.cleaford.co.uk/teeemm.htm
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Permalink Reply by Air Vice-Marshall Pearse on
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I remember seeing him in some of my Grandfather's old papers. Pop was a bomber pilot for the RAAF during WWII.
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Permalink Reply by Cornelius Fanshaw on
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Ah well you might be able to find a copy of the facsimile set printed by the Australian War Museum in the 80s then. Other than the cd that's the only time they've been reprinted. There aren't that many original copies around as technically at the time they were classified documents and not supposed to be seen by the public.
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The Royal Caledon Air Force, also known as the RCAF or Connolly's Crazies, is headquartered at the Connolly Aerodrome in Caledon Penzance.
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