February 13, 2009--"Being a Test Pilot"--Chuck Yeager

Born on February 13, 1923 Chuck Yeager, U.S. test pilot, 1st man to break sound barrier.

I was always afraid of dying. Always. It was my fear that made me learn everything I could about my airplane and my emergency equipment, and kept me flying respectful of my machine and always alert in the cockpit. If you want to grow old as a pilot, you've got to know when to push it, and when to back off. Rules are made for people who aren't willing to make up their own. There's no such thing as a natural-born pilot. You do what you can for as long as you can, and when you finally can't, you do the next best thing. You back up but you don't give up. You don't concentrate on risks. You concentrate on results. No risk is too great to prevent the necessary job from getting done. Chuck Yeager at Brainy Quote. com Chuck Yeager at Wikipedia