# What is this woman saying??? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 7, 2005, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-woman-saying/329878 "2005-11-07T05:49:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Surbey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@Surbey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surbey)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-woman-saying/329878/1 "2005-11-07T05:49:45Z")
I’ve heard this phrase several times but I can never make it out. I heard it said by a Dropship Pilot in the movie Aliens 2. I also heard it said by the dropship pilots in Starcraft. I’m thinkin its a dropship pilot phrase, if not a general pilot phrase. It sounds something like this “In the pike, 5 by 5” or “In the pike, bye bye bye” or “In the bike, bye bye bye” etc etc etc [note: has been put in cafe society because it is a question on a movie, if you feel it should be in General Questions, then by all means.] ---
**Author:** ![The\_Mad\_Hermit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5ac83/32.png) [@The\_Mad\_Hermit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Mad_Hermit)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-woman-saying/329878/2 "2005-11-07T05:57:50Z")
The expression is “in the pipe, five by five.” The meaning given in the context of the movie and games means that the dropship has entered the proper orbit for the mission, that is, the optimum path to landing. Herw is a [cite,](http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20000323) and here is [another](http://painintheenglish.com/post.asp?id=253). ---
**Author:** ![Surbey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@Surbey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surbey)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-woman-saying/329878/3 "2005-11-07T06:07:06Z")
Thank you , its been rackin my brain ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-woman-saying/329878/4 "2005-11-07T06:33:52Z")
“Five by five” doesn’t have anything to do with actual piloting – it’s radio operators’ idiom for “understood,” or “I hear you.” You’ve got two indicators-- the first is for signal strength and the second is for clarity. (Eg, “Five by one” would indicate that the receiver is getting a strong signal, but there’s a lot of noise, etc.) ---
**Author:** ![Surbey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@Surbey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surbey)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-woman-saying/329878/5 "2005-11-07T06:38:08Z")
from reading the two links, I take it to basically mean this “We are entering the proper orbit, everything is fine” ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-woman-saying/329878/6 "2005-11-07T13:59:10Z")
I’m wondering if the “in the pipe” part expression comes from surfer slang, or some other source? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-woman-saying/329878/7 "2005-11-07T14:09:47Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I’m wondering if the “in the pipe” part expression comes from surfer slang, or some other source? I would have thought it just means that the ship is in the right trajectory - the imaginary boundaries of which could be visualised as the walls of a tube or pipe. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-woman-saying/329878/8 "2005-11-07T15:31:57Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I would have thought it just means that the ship is in the right trajectory - the imaginary boundaries of which could be visualised as the walls of a tube or pipe. In a possibly analagous phrase, military pilots drop smart bombs “in the basket”, meaning in conditions in which the bomb’s guidance is believed to be effective to hit the given target. Sailboat ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-woman-saying/329878/9 "2005-11-07T15:38:53Z")
Heh. Awesome. I always wondered what the dropship pilots from Starcraft were saying too.