Air pockets?!

[Shiny Side Up]

Ok, here's another one of those things that's really been irritating Shiny lately: Where does the term "air pocket" come from? Here let me put it into common usage for you.

I lost some altitude because I flew through an air pocket.

...Or better yet:

It wasn't a very fun flight, we hit a lot of air pockets out there.

The latter of which you'll find a group of pilots nodding sypathetically to the declaration.

WTF?!

What on earth is an air pocket? You're saying you flew through some air? I should hope so. Who teaches this out there? I mean, I've never seen it in any books on flying or weather related to flying... And its definitely not in the From The Ground Up. Ok, maybe I'm just quibbling over terminology, but lately it just seems to be a made up excuse for all sorts of student errors - but I'm really curious as to where it originates, It doesn't come from me, yet it seems grotesquely common amongst private pilots. Or maybe its just a conspiracy to irritate me.

[Tango01]

"Air Pocket" comes from the fact that pilots have nothing, but air in their pockets...

[Doc]

There is, of course no such thing as an "air pocket"! Everybody knows this to be a fact. I, however will continue to use the term, untill I find the real one.....and untill I stop flying through bloody air pockets!!

[oldtimer]

I have heard that expression for the whole 44 years I have been involved with aviation and it always comes from some person who knows diddly squat about airplanes. A Saskatchewan dirt farmer comes tomind, not to be insulting to Saskatchewan dirt farmers but this is where I hear the expression the most. It is usually used to describe in-flight turbulence or some other act that we would take for granted. I heard it was an expression used in the early days of aviation so it is nothing new.I know of pilots who have used the expression when some non aviation type is asking dumb questions and you want to brush them off without being rude. Just remember that this just may give some old codger something to talk about for the rest of his sorry dull old life.

[Right Seat Captain]

I first heard the term when I was very young, about 8 or 9 years old. I was flying to Vancouver on a 737, when my mother described the turbulence as flying through Air Pockets. At the time, it made sense to me. As someone else already said, I think it's a term that's now used among non-aviation types to rationalize what turbulence is.

[just another pilot]

I thought you got those in the bathtub

[Johnny]

I thought you got those in the bathtub

or in your bathing suit in a jacuzzi.

[Wadd]

Wow, i was pretty surprised to find this in the dictionary... BUT

air pocket
n.
A downward air current that causes an aircraft to lose altitude abruptly. Also called air hole.


air pocket

n : a local region of low pressure or descending air that causes a plane to lose height suddenly [syn: pocket, air hole]


So anyone who's corrected a non "aviation type" person for using the term improperly.. you might want to appologize, they were hitting the nail on the head with how they said it.

[wha happen]

ya, also known as a downdraft.

I put speed holes in my car, now it goes faster.
Homer J. Simpson

[oldtimer]

Some creepy old geek who has never been more than 100 yards from a library and whose total knowledge of aviation is looking skyward and drooling over his bow tie when an airplane flies over is the one who came up with that definition.
I still say the best explaination is where you are attempting to brush off some asshole who keeps asking stupid questions at a busy time so you brush hin off by saying."just an air pocket".
Usually shuts them up and keeps them nattering about the close encounter with sudden death for years. Especially if he is leaning against the tractor when he tells the story.