What does this aviation quote mean?

Question

"Death is just nature's way of telling you to watch your airspeed"

Answer 1

Insufficient speed kills?

Answer 2

The old saying was part of a thing called the "Ten Commandments of Flight," and I am sorry to say I can't remember the whole thing, but one of the ones I do remember was, "Thou shalt mind thine airspeed, lest the earth arise and smite thee."

The point being that an airplane wing stalls below a certain airspeed for a given angle of attack.  Instructors have always made an effort to scare students into remembering not to let their airspeed get too low when they are close to the ground, especially in an upwind turn, when you get the impression your speed has increased when it has not.

So the moral is that it is very, very important to keep the airspeed well above the stall when close to the ground.  Just as true in a Boeing 747 as it is in a Cessna 150.

Answer 3

This may not have come from this, but I do know it applies a lot to the pioneering of flight in the '50's and '60's. In "The Right Stuff," by Tom Wolfe, you will read about how pilot's goals were to fly faster and harder than the last one. Many pilots found themselves dying very gastly deaths, from being beheaded to ejecting from an aircraft and slamming into the ground without a parachute from 10,000 feet. From watching the mistakes of others, it is a constant reminder for us to "watch our airspeed," and not fly so slow we fall out of the sky, or get so caught up in the glory of being the fastest that we explode into a ball of flames. It can be interpreted in a number of ways, but the main point is, fly the straight and narrow. Hope this helps!

Answer 4

Excessive speed kills?

Answer 5

it means that it's the speed that keeps you airborne, too slow and you stall, and too fast well you know

Answer 6

Never heard that one in forty years in aviation.