fly / airplane

Use the "I love you" handshape to represent an airplane flying through the air. This sign is a noun/verb pair.

fly:
Note: you might want to angle your palm a bit more downward than I'm doing here.

For "AIRPLANE" use a small double motion. You move the hand forward just a couple inches or so, then bring it back, then move it forward again.

Now, here we have the sign for "fly" as in the insect. Not many people know or use this sign. But suppose you were telling a child a story about a fly, it sure would be handy to know this sign.

Or you can spell it: F-L-Y.

Also, you can show how a fly flies:

Note: If you are talking about a bird flying, just flap your arms/hands as if you had wings. For a small bird you would flap just your hands or the index and middle fingers of your hands (while making a whistling facial expression). For a large bird or a pterodactyl you would extend your arms and use a large flapping motion.

In a message dated 7/2/2003 1:34:59 PM Central Daylight Time, ledwards72@msn.com writes:

I have a question for you. I had been taught in the 80's that the sign for "pilot" was "fly" with the "er" affix. Now I am being told that "pilot" is a compound sign using "fly" and "drive". Is this true? Again, it does not make sense to me. I realize that many signs have changed since the 80's when I first learned them, but I guess I need to have them make sense to me.
Thanks, Bill.
Lynn

Lynn,
Well, I certainly don't have a problem with pilot being signed as "fly" and "drive." But whether or not that compound is "THE" sign for pilot as opposed to "A" sign for pilot outside of one particular classroom is up to the deaf community as a whole.
Quite honestly though, I would respect the opinion of a deaf pilot regarding this matter over the opinion of an ASL instructor.
With that in mind, I just sent an email to a deaf friend of mine who is a pilot asking him how HE signs pilot, (heh). Will be interesting to see what he says.

Bill

[My friend did reply.]

He said:
<<hey.. I am doing fine.. the sign for the pilot..ummm... I dont know yet but I could assume that it would be a type of airplane sign.>>

Note: This is a very bright Deaf individual who attended a Deaf school and was raised by Deaf guardians. He is so into airplanes and flying that his email address used to include the number 757 in reference to that type of airplane. I looked at his new email address and it had "cr7" in it. Wondering about that I did a little research and found that CR7 was pilot lingo for "Regional Jet 70" which, (at the time of this discussion) is the newest thing in regional jets.

So then, if this fellow doesn't know of a "standard sign" for pilot, I think it is a safe bet that there is some flexibility in this sign.