Spelling when abandoning an aeroplane
 

A silly question which a colleague came up with yesterday...

... should you be unlucky enough to have to jump out of an aeroplane, would you "bail out" or "bale out"?

Both spellings seem in use, so which, if either, is correct, and why?

G

Bail - same as 'bail'ing someone or something out (of a problem) or bailing out water or bail (as in court).

Both spellings are perfectly acceptable according to my Collins Concise.

I've always thought of it as "bale out" both aquatically and aeronautically but I honestly couldn't say why!

Maybe we should stick to "hitting the silk"! We should be safe with that so long as it's not taken to mean thumping a QC.

Shurely parachutes are not still made from silk?:\

It always has concerned me why people would ever want to jump out of a perfectly well running aircraft,....... unless of course it was already on terra firma.

Bale.... Nah reminds me of wool and hay bales
Bail.... like bail me out of jail...... seems better

Ok then, "She's going in, I'm hitting the nylon"... :}

I'd go with "bailing" out, rather than "baling out"! :ok:

Cheers

Whirls

One of my dictionaries says that Bale is a variant of Bail, and another says Bale: to Bale Out; to abandon an aeroplane in the air and descend by parachute.

isn't it spelled p-u-n-c-h now?

"Shurely parachutes are not still made from silk?"

Stop calling me Shirley !
:)

As the saying goes, "Don't leave the ship until the ship leaves you" :)

There's no such thing as a perfectly good aircraft. Just a perfectly good parachute.

And a perfect pilot, too. Only airplanes are making mistakes!

Now how about a bale (or bail) in?

Remember those sequences at the start of one of the James Bond films where 007 motorcyles off the edge of a cliff in pursuit of a Piliotless Porter and freefalls alongside as it dives vertically and in through the door?

I know Mark Hanna was involved with the film, but I've no idea if he flew that particular sequence.

Extract from my Pilot's Notes (Second edition) for Sea Fury 10 &11. A.P 4018A & B. Promulgated for information and guidance of all concerned by command of their Lordships. See Part IV Page 54 paragraph 79.
Baling Out.

The aircraft may be abandoned as follows:- Leave the cockpit head first over the port side, diving downwards towards the trailing edge of the main-plane and keeping the body as compact as possible.

etc etc.

If I'm jumping out, the last thing on my mind would be spelling!:\

Is aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhh correct? :}

Reminds of the pre-flight brief between fast jet driver and someone going for an experience flight I once read about.

Nervous pax - "What should I say if I have to eject?"

Jet Jock - "Whatever you like, I won't 'kin be here"

Probably urban legend regurgitated for the millionth time, but made me smile.

Jet Jock to pax: "If we have to eject you will hear: "Eject, Eject, Eject". I highly advise you to go on the first one because the last two will be echos."

Another variation.

"If I say eject, don't say what ? 'cos you'll be talking to yourself".

I shall think of nothing else in my potentially final moment, while my relatively uninteresting life passes by, before jumping out of that burning wreck. Did I bail or bale out ? Did I survive because I spelt it this way or the other ? No, I would survive because my lucky number is '7'.

Anyhow, parachuters will know this much better than me, they do it all the time. I will never ever jump out of an airplane unless it's uncontrollable and exitable and I have a suitable device strapped on my back.

My briefing for a ride in G-Hawk was indeed " I'll say eject three times; the third one will be an echo !"

A variation of the message on the pilot's boots was the tradition of scribing on a chum's wedding shoes to say " Help Me ! " when kneeling at the altar.

From personal experience I'd rather take my chances with Martin-Baker...

DZ

bail or bale
To bail someone out is to provide cash to get them out of prison, or more generally to help them out of a difficult situation, especially a financial one: I had to borrow £500 to bail John out; If you hadn't bailed me out last year I don't know what I would have done. To bail water out is to scoop it out with a bucket or other container: We bailed out the water that was coming into the boat. To bale out is to jump from an aircraft: The pilot had to bale out when the engine failed. However, bail is also used in this last sense, especially in the US: The pilot bailed out.

Well that's what tiscali reckon anyway. I prefer bail. Bale brings back memories of backbreaking work throwing large lumps of bound grass onto a trailer.......

Lumps of packaged cloth or clothes are called bales too. It could be argued that the silk, as it used to be, packed into a parachute harness could be described as a bale.

Would you describe the event of leaving the aircraft before it had landed (and somewhat against your will) as a "baleful experience"?

I'll get my anorak...

SD