Pilots that lose their shirts 

As a former student pilot I immediately knew the answer. Didn't happen to me though, someone threw a bucket of ice water at me instead.

I thought it was going to be along the lines of: 'How much does it cost to learn to fly?' 'Everything you have and the shirt off your back.'

2:48 whoever wrote "both toms" in the subs is a comedy genius.

I feel like it's also a mark of honor to say something so off that you get Tom to say "crikey".

Lateral suddenly becomes a comedy show with these panelists! Love your comedic banter, Ella, Caroline, and BOTH TOMS. 😂

Haha I was watching this kind of half asleep and read Caroline as Carolina and Roper as Reaper, and my mind took waaaay longer than I want to admit to recognise that there wasn’t a person named Carolina Reaper on the show…😂

My flight school has a wall display of these. I’d imagine it looks pretty terrifying with no context, but I’m about three months away from having my own favorite shirt join the wall, and I’m looking forward to it.

Ayyy that's my question! It made my day hearing it on the show! ❤

My favourite lineup of the show! Love where their brains are going in this one 😂

What a swerve at the end! I thought I'd figured this out right away - I knew the phrase "getting one's wings" as a metaphor for flying your first solo, so figured the shirt-cutting was symbolically making room for their new wings, taking the metaphor literally. When Tom confirmed it was indeed commemorating their first solo, I was sure I'd nailed it!

Ella bringing new meaning to a "Dead stick landing"

Hey, this is something I actually knew about!

Don't recall this happening to my son after he soloed.

I'm a huge nerd for early aviation, to me it's the most fascinating thing ever, and I didn't know that at all. Now I need to find out more^^ Thanks :)

And 70 years later, the pilot on my Bern-Lugano flight left the plane with a ripped shirt because of a VERY stressful flight. I don't know what happened to his jacket and tie, but the stylish gentleman who had welcomed us on board had transformed in a sweaty, disheveled, well, gentleman (he had an umbrella and accompanied every single one of us to the terminal under a torrential rain, with a big smile). Luckily, it wasn't his first solo flight - my bones would be still scattered somewhere on the Swiss Alps o_O

It amused me so much that ratatouille was mentioned later in the episode when this is basically Pilots being Remyd

I heard this question and all I could think of was Flying the Flag by Scooch. “Would you like something to suck on for landing, Sir?” ✈️🍬😂

Aha! That happened when my Dad soloed maaany years ago and they hung the shirt back on the wall in the flight school, and I remember being mad because it was my favorite shirt of his. lol I knew it was a tradition, but I never knew where it came from. Thank you!!

for a moment, I thought it was something along "hey, we got your back"

My favourite guests! Yay! They’re hilarious😂😂

Cool! Knew the tradition, didn't know the reason!

In my country, the baptism of your first solo flight (at least for gliders and light planes) was done by gathering a big pile of weeds with thorns from the field and be thrown on it. The military does it with a bathtub of cold water.

Aaaw I was kind of disappointed with the reason.. I was sure it was because they were getting their wings. Both the patch and pin, and metaphorically. So is it just the shirt tails? Or the whole back?

Adopt the Ella strategy, which is say something extremely logical and end that with an absurd statement.. yes, I love that!

Ella cracked it!

Like some of these, I have no idea where I heard it, but knew it straight away

Tom Lum: "I'm sorry Ms. Jackson, I am four eels. 'Didn't mean to make your daughter cry, I'm just some fish and not a guy..."

I hoped it was a symbol like "your wings are free now, you can spread them wide"

Always love this pair!

I assumed that after their first solo flight they take it as a way of saying "we have your back".

Genuine - wow!

Love these highlights ❤

I just learned this last week. :)

One of the first questions I immediately knew the answer to! Thanks TikTok

Ella deserves a special prize for those punchlines

That's not the only tradition! The most widely spread is hosing the pilot down with water as they leave the plane after the first solo. That one is universal!

i knew when i heard the question

This happened to me, very amazing experience

So make sure it's a cheap shirt then

I'm a retired pilot and on my solo day (over 50 years ago) the tradition HAD been to cut the solo pilot's necktie and pin it to a trophy wall - only in my case (in the very early 1970s) neckties had gone the way of fedoras; solidly out of fashion.

I assumed it was this. True story. Fighter pilot wearing a "pressurised flight suit" for high G-Force maneuvers (as in, sqeezes the blood in your legs so it stays in your chest). Pilot has diarrhea. Soils himself. Pressurised suit "sqeezes" his legs, poopie goes everywhere inside his suit. Pilot then lands on an aircraft carrier, runs to the end of the flight deck, rips off his flight suit and throws it into the sea.

As a private pilot myslef, I was also denied that experience. I solo'd and it was lessons as usual after that.. Small airport and flight school, bu I've always felt like that was a missing piece ofmy experience.. Oh well....

I thought it will be something about their wings fully ripping through their shirts, now when they've learned to fly

I hadd in mind Heart Attack Victim and the copilot landed when an EMT tore off the shit to access the heart.

The way I heard this, it was the small loop on the back of the shirt just below the collar which was cut off.

Is this linked to the saying "flying by your shirt tails"?

Just goes to show, the "bad ideas" often have bits of the correct answer!

I figured it was "so they could spread their newly earned wings"

Anyone hear the Good Eats theme in the Lateral theme? Not identical, just a similar sound.

I know the first one. Their shirt is cut off as a tradition. The date of the pilot's first solo is written on the fabric.

I thought the pilot was having a severe allergic reaction

I thought it could symbolise openings for wings of something like that

They got their own back

I was thinking along the lines of "to make room for the wings they just got".

i learned this last week after i saw something on instagram about it, didn't think that knowledge would come in handy so soon, lmao

Like they say "you learn something new every day". 🙂

I watch too much YT, got this from the beginning.

2:19 does that reference to "born in tshirt" phraseologism?

At ~4:15 I started chanting "you get wings! You get wings!". Like that it was symbolic that after their first flight they cut holes for the wings. I was wrong, but I think that'd be cool symbolism 🤷

You're a bit off on your timing, Tom. By the 30s & 40s, enclosed cockpits and radios were both fairly common.

A•This one I happened to know; it’s an old tradition.

That is really cool, I knew it was for the first solo flight but didn't know the origin

You're telling me that before radio flight instructors Ratatouilled the trainees by pulling on their shirt.

this episode was unhinged and I loved every second of it

Is there a way to access the podcasts in video format as opposed to pure audio?

Oh I know this one.

my first thougt is some kind of medical incident, but that would make more sense if it was the front of the shirt

Initial thoughts: the question said "safe landing" not "safe flight", and "his shirt" not "the one he's wearing", so a lot here is fair game. From lesser to higher answer confidence: Perhaps the pilot needed to go down into "mechanical" to repair/verify something, and his shirt's back got messed up, making it preferable to get rid of it while still looking dressed and professional (and I doubt it unless it was so long ago). It could refer to that incident where a pilot got almost sucked out the flight deck through the window, damaging his shirt in the process. And/or to treat his injuries while also keeping the uniform (mostly) intact (like in the previous idea), the back of the shirt was cut off. Could have been a medical emergency on board where clean cloth/bandage was needed, and a pilot had a freshly pressed backup shirt in his luggage. The shirt being white is also a big plus as its easy to see colours seeping in (e.g. blood absorbed by the bandage). Could have been to wrap someone while laying on his back/stomach, like to aid in moving the person (homemade stretcher with sleeve handles), cover nudity for some privacy yet allow full access by easy removal, used to detect leaks of "our precious bodily fluids", provide some warmth, ... even making a field sling/brace...

As a student pilot I knew this one immediately. Although, there is a variation of this tradition, that in more familiar with. Here in North America, it’s more common for the instructor to throw a bucket of water over the student upon returning.

Is this where the term Backup comes from?

Can we get the full podcast in video?? ❤

4:18 you have to wonder what was happening here.

I would think it’s when you get your first flight when your in control.

Now we just need to know where the phrase flying by the seat of your pants comes from

Flying by the seat of their pants?

I somehow knew this, wonder where I heard it =S

Half a minute in, is this about that guy who got sucked out? And held by his shirt, belt? Nope! I wonder if this is related to "flying by the seat of their pants"?

my first thought was it was a stunt pilot and the shirt was on fire

A student pilot takes their first solo flight after only 30 hours. Is that when this happened?

I don't think this applies to glider pilots, or maybe I missed out?

i know this one

Just started watching this and I think I know the answer due to a Sam Chui video. I'm not added the answer here!

I tought it was a tie instead of a shirt.

So you're saying in the old days, instructors were technically Ratatouilling students to teach them how to fly? Sick.

2:20 Is a space pilot what is also known as an astronaut?

I'm curious why the question has "a pilot" and not "the pilot".

Or they get a bucket of water thrown on them or they get thrown in a lake

after it became clear it was for the first solo flight I thought it was "so that someone always has your back"

✌

and also he was a man made of eels

mid video guess: wait, isn't that what they do when a student pilot goes on their first solo? cut the back of it off?

My guess: the pilot with the shirt being cut off wasn't the pilot flying the plane. The plane was a medical rescue plane (of some sort), and after it landed the passenger in need of medical assistance (a pilot, in this specific case) has their shirt cut off, as is typical for medical emergencies.

The girl in the dungarees is so adorable! I'd love to see more of her, anyone know if she has a channel?