the.com/holding pattern
Flying in expensive circles so someone else's delay becomes your fuel bill.
means A state of circling or waiting without progress, as a plan, relationship, or decision stays suspended until something else clears.
from Straight from aviation: a 'holding pattern' is the racetrack-shaped loop air traffic control assigns a plane when the runway isn't ready — a literal circuit in the sky, tracked by the FAA and airlines since commercial flight got crowded enough to need queues. By the mid-20th century the phrase had drifted into everyday language for any situation stuck in limbo — a job offer, a negotiation, a life — borrowing the image of going in circles while burning time (and fuel) waiting for someone else's clearance.
- origin
- racetrack-shaped loop near an airport fix
- default stack
- planes separated by 1000 feet vertically
- metaphor leak
- now means any life stuck waiting on someone else
- fuel math
- costs airlines roughly 2500 dollars per circling hour