Lucky charm or mascot

[Beefitarian]

Kid, I've flown from one side of this world to the other, and I've seen a lot of strange stuff, but I've never seen anything to make me believe that there's one all-powerful God controlling everything. No mystical energy controls my destiny. It's all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense.

+1

I don't really believe in luck or any supernatural forces but if I forget my watch, I feel like I'm missing something more than just a piece of metal on my wrist. It does have sentimental value since my dad gave it to me when I got my PPL so that's probably the reason.

Hey if you losers want to live life in ignorance and denial of midichlorians...

[2550]

There was a line in a movie trailer recently that sums it up: The less I relax, the luckier I get

[2550]

Also, if there's an all powerfull God, he must be pretty busy, cause I should have been smote by this time...

[squirrely]

+1 on the watch and Leatherman.

I've always liked the saying "Hope for the best and plan for the worst". As far as mascots go, having Dino the dinosaur up front always made me smile.

[Colonel Sanders]

I don't even own a watch, but I am extremely
superstitious about checking the fuel and wx.

[Shiny Side Up]

Hey if you losers want to live life in ignorance and denial of midichlorians...

Next you'll be trying to tell us that Han shoots second.

[chinglish]

I never fly with keys in my pocket...

A watch seems obvious. According to the CARS you need a functioning time piece.

[Colonel Sanders]

According to the CARS you need a functioning time piece

Where does it say that it has to be mounted on your wrist?

There are plenty of "functioning time pieces" in any cockpit
that I sit in ... the GPS in the panel, the portable GPS, my
cell phone, the ipad, etc.

602.60 (1) No person shall conduct a take-off in a power-driven aircraft, other than an ultra-light aeroplane, unless the following operational and emergency equipment is carried on board:

(f) a timepiece that is readily available to each flight crew member;

Heck, CAR 602.60(f) doesn't even require the "timepiece"
to be reliable or serviceable, for that matter. A broken clock
in the panel will do ya.

I kind of resent this micro-managing regulation. You might
as well write "clean underwear" as required operational
equipment into CAR 602.60 ... you wouldn't want anyone
to fly with dirty or smelly (or horrors, missing) underwear.

Edit -- thinking about, the timers in the KR87 and recent
transponders probably meet the definition of "timepiece".

[crazy_aviator]

what if i dont wear underwear at all,,,does that mean im extremely lucky and know it OR just taking a BIG chance ?

[Colonel Sanders]

Freeballing it might be a CAR 602.01 contravention. The
"litmus test" for reckless and/or negligent operation of an
aircraft is something that a "prudent" pilot would not do -
such as not wearing underwear

[trey kule]

"Semper Ubi Sub Ubi"

From a course motto many years ago.

[Beefitarian]

Next you'll be trying to tell us that Han shoots second.

Noooooooooooooo.

[howard40]

Well there must be some kinda "circumstance" or collision of time, space, and events. Crumb what the F did anyone that climbed on one of 4 airliners on 911 ever do...... So while there may not be a lot of good luck out there , there is some bad luck and no amount of wearing a watch and taking a leatherman will fix that stuff.
Running out of gas is not bad luck, but it might be a whole bunch of other bad things.
While the clock might not have to work, a 200 hour pilot heading west,on a longish cross country, on a breezy spring day, in a 150 sure needs a functioning timepiece ........

[Mr.Blonde]

I got those sweater wrist band from Kawasaki when I raced bikes...I was used to wear it on the track, usefull to clean the sweat while waiting with all your gear on. I started to wear it in the cockpit too since my solo flight, which was in +30deg temp, usefull to clean the sweat waiting on the taxiway or in final...always have this wristband with me when I fly, summer or winter...never washed this

[Mr. North]

If you guys really want to change your life around throw out your sock drawer and buy 30 pairs of new socks. No better way to start the day then by putting on clean crisp socks! You have no idea how this will improve your life!!!

[photofly]

Black socks, they never get dirty...

[shimmydampner]

The thought of a pilot needing a lucky charm to help him keep his or her aircraft safe makes me feel physically sick.

You must have quite a delicate constitution.

[Cat Driver]

The thought of a pilot needing a lucky charm to help him keep his or her aircraft safe makes me feel physically sick.

We had a good luck charm we bought in Alexandria Egypt years ago, it was a little leather camel that we named " Four inch Alllah " .

He always hung in the cockpit looking ahead to keep us out of danger.

We never ever crashed so having Four inch Allah to keep us safe worked.

Oh....by the way no one ever got sick flying with us either.

[Meatservo]

One time I was driving my truck down a very dark road: I might have been trying to get to Red Lake or Pickle lake, someplace like that. I might have been going too fast, probably. Anyway, suddenly some movement out the side window caught my eye as I passed a giant moose just standing there in the other lane. I hadn't seen him at all in the headlights, you know, unlike a deer, their eyes don't shine, and you can't see them. Anyway I wouldn't be here if the goddamn thing had been standing three feet further to the right, so I guess I was lucky.

It is this kind of circumstance that brings to mind the issue of "Luck". I have had a fairly adventurous flying career up 'till this point. I had a pretty good chief pilot at my first job, at least at the time I thought so, but nevertheless I am mostly self-taught when it comes to bush flying. Along the way I've done some remarkably stupid things, and other times have been made aware of a circumstance or two where danger was just around the corner and I avoided it somehow without even knowing about it until later.

Almost all the dead guys I am friends with got that way in an aeroplane. Most older people who have been "bush" pilots for a long time have probably gone through that phase where they've become pretty good at handling an aeroplane, but hadn't by that point realised that it's not necessary to continually demonstrate that prowess, and this is when they most often come to grief. Most of them don't for some reason, but then you read about older guys who have every reason in the world to be perfectly safe no matter what they are doing, and then you read they are gone, and frequently for no good reason.

I guess what I mean is, I know a couple of dead guys who weren't very good or maybe just not very experienced, but most of the guys I know who are dead were really good pilots, good examples to others, and they just flew often and long enough that the statistics caught up with them, or something. Most of the real assholes and hacks and show-offs I know are still alive.

I guess that's bad luck. I know that through strength of character, good education, careful planning and intelligence you open the window for good luck to find you. The absence of these things blocks good luck the way a guy standing in front of you at the nudie bar blocks your view of the interesting bits. You often get lucky, but not as consistently as you would if you had used good planning and gotten a seat right at the front. And, sometimes, she just doesn't take her pants off anyway, and all your good planning and common sense can't help you unless you are willing to pay a lot more money.

If carrying a rubber chicken in your flight bag or wearing a lucky hat makes you feel better, I say go for it. Just remember, if you forget your rubber chicken, or your leatherman, well, you know, it's not going to be a finding in the TSB report.

[JMACK]

Fate is the hunter!

[Expat]

The thought of a pilot needing a lucky charm to help him keep his or her aircraft safe makes me feel physically sick.

I'll second your comment.

Also, I have to admit that my mascots are usually fuel, altitude, good weather/aircraft/crew/training, etc...
There is also something about runway lengh in front.

It does not always mean being lucky in the cockpit. I have lost three pilot friends differently. One from cancer, at 39, a farmer,one from a stroke at 47, a truck driver, and one from a freak farm tractor accident, at 37. They were all good pilots.
I have lucky charms, one given to me by a Muslim lanlord, in Damascus, in 1986, and one given to me by my mother, when I left for Afghanistan.
I have twice walked away from planes that never flew again...

[Meatservo]

They're always after me lucky charms!