Fly by the Seat of One's Pants

#####Fly by the Seat of One’s Pants

Welcome to English in a Minute!

Here’s an idiom that seems to make no sense!

FLY BY THE SEAT OF ONE’S PANTS

Say that again?

How can someone fly by the seat of her pants?

Let’s listen:

How are we ever going to get this project done at work?

I have no idea! At this point, we are flying by the seat of our pants!

We don’t have a plan worked out yet.

Flying by the seat of one’s pants means that you don’t have a set plan going forward.

This phrase comes from the early days of airplanes.

Pilots did not have much technology to help them know where they were, or where they were going.

Pilots had to depend on their judgment and their brains.

Which is what flying by the seat of our pants means today!

And that’s English in a Minute!