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Kingdom in the Sky - Earthly Fetters and Heavenly Freedoms.  The Pilot's Approach to the Military Flight Environment

The work of the flyer is to some extent, irrational in
nature. It consists of a complex combination of
knowledge in intuition, of volitional acts, and
spontaneous decisions of intellectual and physical
work. The flyer may or may not be intelligent,
generous or thrifty, clever or not clever. This may all
be true until the time of a forthcoming mission.
I have witnessed prompt in-flight reactions in
sluggish thinkers: I observed events of selfishness,
which were difficult to foresee on the ground, in
subjects notorious for their egocentric highly
pragmatic attitudes.
I have sometimes criticised the author for idealising
the flyer. Some years have passed since my last
landing, when I embraced for the last time my aircraft
and kissed its armoured cheekbone. Now I am
retracting my criticism — the flyer is a man of the
highest order... V.A. Ponomarenko has understood
this, in greater depth than I have, and his book relates
all about it.
There is no uniformity style, content, and spirit in this
book. The reader will see the proofs and an
invocation hymn to the aviator, and a belittling of
those who don’t see in aviation its essence. In details
of abstract reasoning, and of accurate quantitative
investigations, he attempts, and in my opinion,
succeeds to create a unity by combining all physical
and psychological limitations of the spirit.
The motif of the book, which covers a great variety of
data, contains two main thoughts: 1) the profession of
the flyer (more dangerous than that of the most
dangerous profession) demands inner freedom and
those qualities which give freedom; and 2) those who
determine the strategy and plan a life in aviation
(including instructors and commanders) should
proceed from this first and main premise.
This is not a call for anarchy. What I said about the
qualities assuring an inner freedom, include first of
all, professionalism in all its manifestations, as well
as psycho-physiological personality traits related to
performance, knowledge, skills, and sound habits.
This is what gives a pilot the right and obligation to
use all the capability of his aircraft when necessary.
as in special flight situations, in non—standard
environments, or in combat.