For contrast, one time he was in a P-51 that swallowed a valve, and he said he was lucky he was over the airfield, as that airplane was going down promptly. The P-51 had a much more fragile engine, I wouldn't want to fly one over water.
He was forced to land immediately.
The story was more about the P-47. He was nearing the airfield (again!) when the valve broke loose. He was asked by the tower if he could do another lap of the airfield and give someone else priority in landing. The vibration wasn't so bad, so he said "sure".
After landing, the chief mechanic called him over and chewed him out for doing the extra lap. The mechanic showed him the engine, which was just turning rubble.
He was a B-17 navigator during WW2. On one mission, one of the four engines was hit by flak and stopped. The pilot talked to the crew, saying they had a choice. Three engines meant the B-17 couldn't keep up with the formation, and would get picked off by the trailing Me-109s, so they would preemptively bail out over Germany. Or, they could drive the 3 engines way past their rated power, and pray they kept turning for the many hours of the return flight. They risked crashing into the Channel.
They chose the latter, the engines held, and they landed back at base (the engines were scrapped).
I have my dad's "Lucky Bastard" certificate, he earned it :-) He passed away a few years ago, I doubt there are more than a handful of WW2 aviators left.
http://generalatomic.com/jetmakers/introduction.html
So, yes!
He really liked the F-86 Sabre.
You're right, my dad had a great life. When people would ask him "how are you?" he'd reply "shot at and missed!"
In the olden tymes, ordinary lusers were able to turn the machine's dial past 10..., knowing that their account might be terminated.
Now all that's left is excel.
The FADECs have a control panel, where universally there's a button for "screw the engines, give me power". Required for things like losing one of two engines immediately during takeoff, or having to do go-around on one.
Dead stick touched down on the runway.
Got chewed out for saving the airplane instead of his ass.
He admitted to me decades later that he should have bailed out, but had never done so and was afraid of doing it.