Dudley, as the years pass, I've become more and more Presbyterian in my outlook
on life and death. There very well may be a Good Book somewhere up there with
everybody's name inscribed, along with an arrival date and a departure date, and
it doesn't matter what the person does or doesn't do, when the departure date
arrives, he's outta' here.

I've flown with guys who could've flown the pants off me, and twice on Sundays,
who are no longer with us, as well as far less competent twits than I who are
still around apparently tempting fate with every twitch and never quite meeting
up with it. I'm sure you know zillions of people, especially in the latter
group, who always make you wonder how they get by. I know I do.

All of which is not to say that doing your best doesn't matter. And, re-reading
your comments, I don't think that my slant, while perhaps capricious, are in
conflict with your views on the subject.

George Z.

Dudley Henriques wrote:
"Gooneybird" wrote in message
...

One of my pet commentaries more or less
along the same lines is "If you don't want to screw up on your job, don't get
out of bed in the morning."

George Z.

Sounds good, but might not always be the case. There are jobs in this world,
(I had one of them for many years, and I might add, I'm still here to write
about it :-) that absolutely demanded perfection each and every instant the
job was being done in real time; it was a job where there was absolutely no
margin for the slightest error; where any error at all would have caused
instant death.
No biggie really, but nonetheless, there are jobs like that out there, and
people who have done these jobs on a protracted basis through time and
survived.
Cliché's are nice. Reality however, will either kill you or you'll survive,
depending on your ability to maintain what is needed on an ongoing basis and
how you deal with it in real time......EVERY TIME!!!! :-)
I would add, that there's a price that must be paid over time if one is
engaged in such work. I've found the price to be cumulative. The trick is
knowing when the price has reached the point where just one more exposure to
the job will cross the safety line. If you quit at or before that point, you
survive. If not, you're history!
Dudley Henriques
International Fighter Pilots Fellowship
Commercial Pilot/CFI
Retired