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There is a site for University of Texas football where Coach Mack Brown gives inspirational quotes, and here is a paraphrase of one today from a famous test pilot.
"You do what you can for as long as you can, and when you can't do it any longer, you just back up, but you don't ever quit."
Whatever personality lacks Yeager has, lack of determination was not one of them.
I'll tell you a funny story from the mid-90's when I was performing in the airshow at Sun-N-Fun.
Yeager showed up and walked through the warbird ramp before heading over to the performers tent to take in the afternoon airshow. Stopped in front of a PT-22 and chatted with the owner. Yeager allowed as to he had flown them when one of his fighter squadron's had one or two as "squadron hacks" for going to meetings and run errands. The owner casually offered to let Yeager fly his if he wanted to. After a moment Yeager said he would indeed like to.
If you have been to Lakeland, you may remember that there is a grass runway between the show line taxiway runway 9/27. It is used for the ride hoppers and the WW I folks when they attend. There is a shallow drainage ditch between the taxiway and the grass runway on the east end (important detail).
So the owner, who is probably thrilled that the great Yeager is going to fly his airplane, gets Yeager saddled up, started, and off to fly around the patch. Yeager goes around the pattern and lands. Then the awful expander tube brakes that PT-22's came with fail. And Yeager is off the grass runway and headed into the ditch. You can now only imagine the owner having the horrified thought that he is going to have to explain to his insurance company that he loaned his airplane to the great Yeager who bent it!
But Yeager IS Yeager and he managed to hammer the rudder over, give the airplane a blast of power, and came up out of the ditch and to a halt. Not a scratch on the airplane. You or I would have rolled it up into a ball.
The story of my skydiver wife accosting Mr Yeager in the performer's tent to get his signature on her jacket (next to Joe Kittinger's) is a story for another time...
Y'all be carefull out there,
Wes
N78PS