Confronting a situation with intuition and common sense without experience or instruction

Etymology:

  • It was popular phrase of American Army’s Air corps in 1930s. Sometimes there were no instruments available to the planes and sometimes planes were there but instruments were not functional. In that situation, pilot had to fly the plane with his natural instinct so he used to sit tight and firm on the seat of his pants making sure he was alert. Today if you have no instructions or experience for a project or work, you might have to “Fly by the seat of your pant” using your common sense and intuition.
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Daniel had not worked on this newspaper before so he was flying by the seat of his pants in his new job.

Submitted on February 25, 2019

Modified by TriplePurple on December 29, 2023

Translation

Find a translation for the fly by the seat of one's pants phrase in other languages:

andare a braccio, improvvisare

volare ad sedem tuam braccas

在你的裤子旁边飞

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    "fly by the seat of one's pants." Phrases.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Oct. 2024. <https://www.phrases.com/phrase/fly-by-the-seat-of-one's-pants_44670>.

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