Superstitious ????
 

I was wondering whether anyone is particularly superstitious ??? If anyone has a little ritual or something they do before they fly ??? Apart from checking the fuel levels !!!!

Try not to fly under ladders on friday ?

Unlucky 13?
 

Never make thirteen landings in one hour. Does that count?

Never land with the helicopter’s skids across a crack (or expansion joint) on a concrete parking apron.

Always cross my toes when flying EC machines.

Never land if a black cat is landing on an intersecting runway.

A friend's wife (who is Buddhist) follows him around the aircraft as he does his preflight, and touches each part and says a small prayer for each bit. Works so far, he has returned from every flight.:ok:

If the engineer who performed some major "surgery" on your machine is not willing to go with you on the test flight, it's probably not a good idea to fly it!!

Many years ago, I took the conscious decision not to believe in all this superstion nonsense. On occasion, I went out of my way to walk under a ladder. I walked over the cracks in pavements; if I were throwing away a mirror I would deliberately break it; if no one was looking I would direct a (gentle) kick at a black cat; etc. etc.

And the result of all this? Well, I'm still here. I can honestly say nothing untoward has ever happened to me as a result of all the above. Touch wood.

The nuclear physicist Niels Bohr was asked why he had a horseshoe hanging up in his laboratory when he wasn't a superstitious person. "I've heard that it works even if you don't believe in it!" was the reply!

Cheers

Whirls

Good one farmer.... you made me giggle.

O.K., I'm not generally superstitious, but it gave me and others some pause the Friday the 13th I hand an engine failure on my 13th leg!!! I'm not making that up.

Most of my colleagues fly with 121,50 mhz in the standby radio, I never do that...

Under no circumstances will I conduct any kind of test flight if I know that a priest is watching.

Twice I've been managing a flight test, a priest (military padre to be precise) turned up out of curiosity to see what was going on, and within 5 minutes we came within a hairs breadth of losing an aircraft. I mentioned this to a former boss of mine, who said "ah, yes, the padre was watching when I lost a Harrier".

That's good enough for me, won't do it.

G

I always stroke my birds nose like a horse when doing my walkround...does that make me weird?

Yes, I'm afraid it does.

....especially as horses can't "stroke" as such ;)

Cheers

Whirls

I would think your bird would find another boyfriend if you stroke her nose like she was a horse.

'Torque dirty', you have the wrong user name. You should hereafter be known as the "heli whisperer".

Si

A non scientific answer
 

A non scientific answer from a scientist.

I would not call it superstition but intuition.
Ì tend to believe and follow my intuition.

Remark that even Farmer 1 ended with "touch wood" .....


d3

Revisit an old thread: I was reminded of this as I deal with motorcyclists who must put the left glove on first, mount from the left side, etc etc. Otherwise they will self combust/run off at the first corner/get a speeding ticket/fail to find a decent coffee shop.

Throughout RN flying training we (nearly) all had our lucky charms, etc. Mine was a set of Dad's wings carried in the left arm pocket of the romper suit. Anyone else remember habits during training, or even now still carry out a set routine?

When doing deck winching, I always spin three times anticlockwise and then arrive on the deck facing backwards.

Always thank the girl for a safe flight

That's the one, Hughsey. I also do that to my car!

Always have a leak before you leave......

"Superstition" ?!
noun:
1. a belief or notion, not based on reason or knowledge, in or of the ominous significance of a particular thing, circumstance, occurrence, proceeding, or the like.
2. a system or collection of such beliefs.
3. a custom or act based on such a belief.
4. irrational fear of what is unknown or mysterious, especially in connection with religion.
5. any blindly accepted belief or notion.

Superstition is dangerous in aircraft.
Even if it is just carrying your old man's wings (anyway that is not superstition, surely it is charming sentimentalism).
(eg Bible carrying is fatal superstition)

Before OPC/LPCs, I always spend a little time going through the notes/books/FRC drills. Might be superstitious, but it's worked so far (apart from the one time I was dropped into a no-notice Bo105 session with my previous employer. Sorry, Mike - I wasn't in the least bit ready for that one :ooh:)

...and having just read AnFI's contribution before posting, I have to say that in my current job I'd rather have a single-engine failure in my twin when working below 100' on the powerlines than 2 of my predecessors had in their mighty 206. Purely personal preference, obvs.

Otto Kretschmer noted U Boat commander had a horse shoe attached to the conning tower of U99. When it was sunk and he was captured it was pointed out to him that with the shoe pointing down all the luck ran out.

However there must have been a little luck left, as Kretschmer exhausted in the water after helping his men, was saved by a British sailor who climbed down the rescue nets to pull him to safety.

The shoe pointing down forms a gate to welcome luck to enter.

Some explanation from the super superstitious pilot:
Superstitious Chuck

There you go, yet another good reason for BREXIT, we differ in our explanation of the horseshoes good luck from our Euro chums!!!!

I pee near the tail when possible during the pre-flight inspection .... it counts as superstition or is it just my prostate?

My wife often says "Good luck" when I'm leaving for work.

If she does, I always make a point of replying: "Thanks, but I prefer not to depend on luck when going flying".

It just makes me think about what I'm about to do.

On the way to start my pilots course I stopped at WH Smith to buy a note book and some pencils/pens. While I was there I picked up a Parker ball point.

The only time that ball point was not in either my bag or pocket in the last
15 000+ hours I did £ 4 000 000 of damage to a helicopter and a whole lot more to my confidence and body.

Even if that pen is not working as it needs a new re-fill it still flies in my bag. Odd I know, but I actually feel uncomfortable without it.

SND

Shy,

You have it backwards....."Luck trumps Skill every time!".

Think about it!

If Lady Luck smiles on you then things will work out and you can call it Skill.

Apply the best Skills possible and if she looks the other way ....you are in trouble!

SAS

now that is true...

a great wisdom; without luck, skill is nothing

they say "fortune favours the brave"

but of course it is really the brave that have the most to gain from good fortune...

... the rest cower in their timidity, hide behind 2 engines, and have no faith in their ability to dance with 'Lady Luck'

Napoleon Bonaparte: “I’d rather have lucky generals than good ones.”
Eisenhower: “I’d rather have a lucky general than a smart general. They win battles.”

You make your luck

Arnold Palmer: 'The more I practice, the luckier I get,'”

Skill becomes 'luck' , we are in a persuit where that skill (which is often called luck) is THE thing that saves the day - get skilled, get rational, don't hang your hat on the gearbox of the bureaucrat, get skilled instead.

ANfI - you got your last post edited because you can't stay on topic yet you just have to ruin an otherwise reasonable post with that.:ugh:

I always start both engines before getting airborne, it has worked for me for years

Avoid software releases ending in even digits (true since my first days working at the Technical University).
Avoid flying during the first ten hours after any major overhaul (pass the buck).

Avoid flying a Brantly on any day that has a "Y" in it.

Tomorrow should be safe?

Avoid R22s - period.
That's worked for me so far.