Cut the chatter...

Or not, here's a link to some pilot terms

http://www.theforce.net/latestnews/story/Learn_Some_Fighter_Pilot_Slang_107019.asp

Got more modern ones as well, but let's just say they are very colorful and linking them here could get me in trouble. Here are some of the cleaner ones:

R2D2: A RIO* (reference to Luke?s robot backseater)

RIO: Radar Intercept Officer. Back-seat crewman in the F-14 Tomcat and F-4 Phantom. A specialized NFO**

NFO: An aviator who is an officer but not a pilot; pilots say it stands for "No Future Occupation"; also called the "walkin'-talkin' navbag."

My fun meter is pegged: Sarcastic comment for, "I am not enjoying this."

Opportunity to Excel: A disagreeable job without the time or resources to properly complete.

Three Nine Line: Imaginary line across your airplane's wingspan. A primary goal in ACM is to keep your adversary in front of your three-nine line.

Bought the farm: Died. Originated from the practice of the government reimbursing farmers for crops destroyed due to aviation accidents on their fields. The farmer's, knowing a good thing when they see it, would inflate the value of lost crops to the point that, in effect, the mishap pilot "bought the farm". Student pilots regularly practice emergency landings to farmer's fields. (This one term must have a bazillion different origins judging from the amount of "corrections" I've received. I still like this one - ed.) Another definition for the term as submitted by Bernard J. Wilson, Captain, Los Angeles Airport Police: If a pilot was killed, either in combat or due to aircraft accident, the beneficiaries of his insurance would be payed off. Since pilots tended to be young, the beneficiaries would often be their parents. So, when the pilot died, he "bought the farm" by the insurance money paying off the mortgage.

 

Very fun! Thank you for the link. I love stuff like this.

 

Some more for grins:

Admin - The rented room that is the party headquarters ashore, usually at a foreign port of call.

Back to Taxpayers - Where you send a wrecked aircraft

Booming - Loud, raucous partying ("we were booming last night"; or, fast, exciting flying ("we went booming through the Grand Canyon". (Kind of explains a lot about the character "Boomer" in BSG don't it?)

Brain Housing Group - Mock tech term for the skull

Check Six - Visual observation of the rear quadrant, from which most air-to-air attacks can be expected. Refers to the clock system of scanning the envelope around the aircraft; 12 o'clock is straight ahead, 6 o'clock is directly astern. Also a common salutation and greeting among tactical pilots. Keep an eye on your behind, be careful.

Drift Factor - If you have a high one, you aren't reliable.

Hummer - Any ingenious machine--plane, car, or weapon--whose actual name can't be recalled. Also "puppy," "bad boy." The E-2 Hawkeye early-warning aircraft is also nicknamed "Hummer", in reference to the sound of its turboprop engines.

Martin Baker Fan Club - If you eject, you're a member (a reference to the Martin-Baker company, manufacturer of ejection seats). An official list of members is maintained.

Pucker Factor - How scary something is.

Rules of Engagement - A rather arbitrary set of rules that seemed to consistently change at the whim of politics.

Shot down in flames - Crossed in love. Severe reprimand.

Hawk Circle - Keeping an eye peeled for an ACM adversary; also called "doing the Linda Blair," for the 360-degree head rotation in the movie "The Exorcist".

Hanger Queen - An aircraft that suffers chronic "downs"; hangar queens are often pirated for spares for the squadron's other aircraft, so when the aircraft leave the carrier at the end of the cruise, the maintenance officer normally flies the hangar queen because he knows which parts have been taken (the "queen's" ejection seats are especially well preflighted).

Behind the power curve - Not keeping up with expectations

Bennies - Warm beer and mail from the world

Bent - Damaged or broken

Big Chicken Dinner - AKA Bad Conduct Discharge

Bingo - Minimum fuel for a comfortable and safe return to base. Aircraft can fly and fight past bingo fuel in combat situations, but at considerable peril

Contract - Agreements and ground rules, some minor and some life-threatening, between two-man fighter crews or between wingmen.

Dot - Refers to how a distant aircraft looks on the horizon, ("I'm a dot" means "I'm out of here".

Envelope - The maximum performance parameters of an aircraft; flying at the edge of the envelope can be both exciting and dangerous.

Suds - Engine or electrical power, "Doesn't have enough suds for that altitude"

FM or BFM - *edit* Magic or Black *edit* magic. Very high-tech; used to describe how something you don't understand actually works. The ASQ-81 Magnetic Anomaly System works by "FM". (Also used in electronics to describe microwave frequency devices).

Either Battlestar Galactica has some good flying advisors, or they have hit the same site I have for pilot slang, I see a lot of stuff they use in their com chat (bingo, nugget, CAG, etc). Oddly enough I also hear a lot of the same terms applied to stuff at work, but I guess it is the aerospace biz.

Wish I could post the site I found, but it's simply got too many off color terms for the general public. Send me a PM if you want the link. Adults only please, and I'm checking IDs!

 

I'm outta here too, seriously.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwzHJVfwudE&NR=1

Dairy Queen on Naboo sounds good to me.