Originally Posted by Shaggy Sheep Driver
I was talking to a non-pilot a while ago and told him how a Yak52 I once had a share in had done a wheels-up landing (not by me!).
What picture does that generate in your mind?
Since no one else is prepared to say it, I will.
Given that you're asking the question, and that the response was from a non-pilot, the picture which that generated in my mind looked something like this:
Originally Posted by Shaggy Sheep Driver's non-pilot friend
"What, it landed upside down? How did that happen?"
That doesn't mean that's what I thought you meant, just that I can see how someone who hadn't heard the phrase before might arrive there and say that before they got to the correct meaning.
That sort of thing has certainly happened to me before, though I usually manage to realise and burst out laughing at my preposterous alternative meaning, leaving the expert to stop and think about what they just said, rather than giving them the punchline for free.