Airline pilot explains 17 code words passengers don't understand

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• Patrick Smith is an author, aviation blogger, and commercial airline pilot.
• Smith compiled a list of commonly misunderstood airline terms for his website AskThePilot

For most of us, flying is still an inherently mysterious activity.

To shed some light on the world of commercial air travel, Business Insider turned to Patrick Smith for some answers. Smith is not only an author and aviation blogger but also a long-time commercial airline pilot flying Boeing 757 and Boeing 767 jets.

Smith, who authored the book Cockpit Confidential, compiled a glossary of commonly misunderstood airline jargon on his website, AskThePilot.

According to Smith, some of the terms are highly technological while others are quite humorous and even a bit absurd.

Here is a selection of these entries.

Used in a sample sentence: "Flight attendants, doors to arrival and crosscheck."

Definition: The announcement, usually made by the lead flight attendant as the plane is approaching the gate, is to verify that the emergency escape slides attached to each door have been disarmed — otherwise the slide will deploy automatically as soon as the door is opened. 

Used in a sample sentence: "Flight attendants, doors to arrival, crosscheck and all-call."

Definition: According to Smith, all-call is usually part of the door arming/disarming procedure. "This is a request that each flight attendant report via intercom from his or her station — a sort of flight attendant conference call," he wrote.

Definition: "A racetrack-shaped course flown during weather or traffic delays," Smith wrote. "Published holding patterns are depicted on aeronautical charts, but one can be improvised almost anywhere."

Used in a sample sentence: "We’ve now reached our cruising altitude of flight level three-three-zero. I’ll go ahead and turn off the seatbelt sign…"

Definition: "There’s a technical definition of flight level, but I’m not going to bore you with it," Smith wrote. 

According to the long-time airline pilot, flight level is simply a fancy way of saying how many thousands of feet the plane is above sea level. 

"Just add a couple of zeroes. Flight level three-three zero is 33,000 feet," he explained. 

Used in a sample sentence: "We’re just finishing up some last minute paperwork and should be underway shortly…"

Definition: For many of us, this announcement is a precursor to a delay. According to Smith, this "paperwork" is usually a revision of the flight plan, something to do with the plane's weight-and-balance record, or simply waiting for the maintenance staff to get the flight's logbook in order. 

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