Field Notes · Glossary 27 Aug 2026
Feet wet, feet dry
Two compact calls that report a coastline crossing: over water, then back over land.
Feet wet reports that an aircraft is flying over water. Feet dry reports the opposite: it is flying over land.
The calls are useful around coastlines because the crossing can change navigation references, recovery options, radio expectations or the phase of a route. A short transmission gives everyone the same geographic event without narrating the whole picture.
For a rookie pilot, they are also a clean lesson in brevity: the best call is not the one that sounds most technical. It is the smallest call that gives the group a useful shared fact.