What good does it do to be afraid? It doesn't help anything. You better try and figure out what's happening and correct it.

After about 30 minutes I puked all over my airplane. I said to my self, "Man, you made a big mistake."

Hey Ridley, that Machometer is acting screwy. It just went off the scale on me.

There is no such thing as a natural born pilot. Whatever my aptitudes or talents, becoming a proficient pilot was hard work, really a lifetime's learning experience. For the best pilots, flying is an obsession, the one thing in life they must do continually. The best pilots fly more than the others; that's why they're the best. Experience is everything. The eagerness to learn how and why every piece of equipment works is everything. And luck is everything, too.

It wasn't that the X-1 would kill you, it was the systems in the X-1 that would kill you.

The one word you use in military flying is duty. It's your duty. You have no control over outcome, no control over pick-and-choose. It's duty.

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.