As most pilots know, among the dangerous attitudes there is the idea of invulnerability. The belief that the pilot is invincible, untouchable, and capable of handling any situation. It is designated by the FAA as "It won't happen to me." This could not be for false. Even before my private pilot training was complete had experienced multiple equipment failures and bad weather. I had the good fortune of them either have a redundancy, or being able to return to the airfield safely. These occurred in some of best kept and equipped steam gauge C172s for a part 61 school.
It doesn't matter how well kept an aircraft is, or even how many hours a pilot has. Captain Sullenberger had nearly twenty thousand hours at the time of flight 1549. My instructor always taught the aircraft doesn't know who is flying, and it doesn't care. It isn't going to go easy on a less experienced pilot, if something is going to go wrong, it'll go wrong regardless of who is at the stick. That same instructor also taught us Murphy's law: "if it can go wrong, it will." That was part of the reason I started to carry an extra compass and paper VFR flight charts in my flight bag at all times, so that if I went down, I could find my way back again. The other reason was because of a messed up compass due to the addition of an AoA indicator. It was always 30 degrees off or more. So I carried the compass for if I ever became disoriented and lost known headings. It was there as a contingency, and well as a source of confidence. I have always tried to live by the phrase "better to have and not need, than need and not have."
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Photo used under Creative Commons from C. P. Ewing