Humpty-Bump Pull Top, Diamond Loop, Reverse Shark’s Tooth, Hammerhead, and Goldfish from the Top are all names of aerobatic maneuvers recorded in the Aresti System, designed by Spanish aviator Jose Luis de Aresti Aguirre as a means of...
When the pressure drops in an airplane cabin and all the oxygen masks fall, pilots refer to all that equipment hanging down as a rubber jungle. This is part of a complete episode.
mowing the lawn n.— «Maritime patrol planes fly a grid pattern over the search area, guided by GPS. They fly in parallel swaths over the ocean, in a process that pilots refer to as “mowing the lawn.” Flying at an altitude of...
meat-bomb n.— «When I was learning to parachute (or become a “meat-bomb,” as the pilots refer to it) the jump master told us that the horizon-wide landing zone (LZ) contained one object and one object only: a tree...
ditch-switch n.— «It also turns out that the pilots on Flight 1549 did not throw the so-called “ditch-switch,” designed to seal the plane’s belly and make it more buoyant after a water landing. Investigators say the pilots...
tail-dragger n.— «They began amassing more planes, paying special attention to the more versatile models that have a third wheel in back as opposed to the front—”tail-draggers,” as they call them.» —“Flying while female:...