Salon :: Tech & Business

Ask the pilot: From "deadheading" to "tarmac," Part 2 of our expert's handy glossary for the savvy passenger

I might not be Suze Orman or that guy with the big shiny teeth, but my two-part airline vocabulary builder gives you the competitive edge. Fly savvy and informed, ready to chat up that gate agent or DEADHEADING crew member with confidence and panache. The following terms and phrases were covered in Part 1:

Cross-check; all-call; last-minute paperwork; flight deck; first officer (copilot); captain; ATC; control tower; holding pattern; EFC time; flight level; knot; area of weather; air pocket; wake turbulence; wind shear; approach; instrument approach; final approach; water landing; cleared to land; go-around (missed approach); the full, upright and locked position; tampering with, disabling or destroying; do; at this time; the off position; deplane.

In fielding this week's mail, I've learned that readers overseas are mostly unfamiliar with phrases like "the off position" and "tampering with, disabling and destroying." We in America should be so lucky. I hate to say it, but this style of bloated aerochatter is almost exclusively a U.S. phenomenon. You do not hear banal babbling on the likes of Singapore Airlines, Emirates, etc.

Anyway, this time we'll stay on the ground, with a focus on those expressions heard in and around the airport.

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DEADHEAD

You'll frequently see uniformed crew members riding in the cabin, repositioning to pick up a flight or traveling back to their base. In airline-speak, they are "deadheading." This travel is part of the crew's assigned rotation, and he or she is on the clock for purposes of pay and duty-time limitation. Deadheading is not the same as commuting to or from work on your own time (a pilot who lives in one city, but is based in another) or being engaged in personal travel. The latter is called "non-revving," from the term "non-revenue passenger."

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