IFR Ten Commandments (WWII Air Force)

[AggieMike88]

Found this whilst surfing the net for IFR related items.

WWII AIR FORCE 10 IFR COMMANDMENTS

1. Seat thyself well upon thy fifth vertebra, leaving not thy fingerprints on the controls and chewing not on thy fingernails.
   
2. Know thy instruments, for they are the true and appointed prophets.
   
3. Follow the indications of thy instruments and verily thee airplane will follow along, even as the tail follows the sheep.
   
4. Do not stick out thy neck a foot; stay within the confines of thy ability and thou shalt live to a happy old age.
   
5. Know the appointed words and approved methods, so that if thy neck dropeth out, thou shalt be able even unto thyself to place same in it's proper place, upon thy shoulders.
   
6. Follow thy radio beam, for these ways are happy ways and will lead to the promised landing.
   
7. Listen carefully, yea verily, to the signal impinging on thy eardrum, for sometimes they seem to have the tongues of snakes and will cross up thy orientation to the sad state to where thou must ask Heaven Herself for guidance. (If you have never flown the radio range that existed in the 30s and 40s you won't appreciate this advice.)
   
8. Assume not, neither shalt thou guess, that thy position is such, but prove to thine own satisfaction that such is the case.
   
9. Boast not, neither brag, for surely Old Devil Overcast shalt write such words in his book and thou shalt some day be called for an accounting.
   
10. Trust not thy seat (of thy pants), but follow thine instruments. Read and truly interpret the word as given from thine instrument board and know that the responsibility lies not with the hand that rocks the control column, but in and with the mind that directs the hand, and thou shalt be blessed with a long and happy life.

 

[Chip Sylverne]

Yea unto thee came the word,
And the word was good.

 

[Ghery]

The more things change, the more things stay the same.

 

[Jimmy cooper]

A customer of mine, former B17 pilot flying with the 8th airforce from England, told me years ago that they lost many aircraft while forming up and due to weather and often while trying to find home base in bad weather. He flew 35 missions , was discharged as a squadron leader , Lt. Col. At 26 yrs. simply because most of the others were dead. He was considered old by then. He also stated that at 67 years old, given ten minutes to "look things over" as he put it, he felt certain he could start one up and fly it were it in good condition.

 

[Zeldman]

A dear old friend was an aircraft commander in B-17.

He needed to go to Albuquerque for a Dr. appointment. I was happy to take him. Afterwards we went to the airport for lunch. There was a B-17 on display. (of course I knew it would be there)

I talked the crew into taking my friend on board the plane. He could not climb up the bottom hatch (12 O'clock High style) so he went in on the side entrance. He literally floated up to the cockpit and jumped right into the left seat like he had been doing it all his life. He looked it over, pointed the new instruments that weren't there during his time, he told us the starting procedure, how to visually synchronize the props and he even remembered climb speeds and landing speeds.

He sat there for an hour telling us stories about his time in England, and about the time they almost didn't make it back.

On the way home he was unusually quiet, and after about 20 minutes I looked and he was asleep.

He passed away 3 years later. His daughter-in-law told me that his last few days he talked about sitting in a B-17 again.

 

[aterpster]

A customer of mine, former B17 pilot flying with the 8th airforce from England, told me years ago that they lost many aircraft while forming up and due to weather and often while trying to find home base in bad weather.

It was awful. Both the combat and those all-too-frequent weather entanglements.