The deluge of water had overwhelmed the Pilot tube from which the aircraft instruments drew their information.

Pitot tubes - a plane's speed sensors - became pilot tubes.

Don squinted down the pilot tube of the meteor spotter and saw the Hippocrates passing.

The pilot tube swiveled quickly to one side, lining up with the spot in the celestial globe of the meteor detector.

Inspectors found that the pilot tube had inexplicably come loose and the right front wing spar had broken.

For the next six hours this continued,Jack needed all his strength to move the flying controls heavy with snow, bombarded by hail and snow causing the radiator shutters to jam, hiding the petrol gauge and choking up the pilot tube.

I could also hear faint screaming, and believed at first that a wind was rising and fluting through the gaps in the wreckage; but there was no wind outside: the tiny pennant drooping from the airspeed Pilot tube at the wingtip was perfectly still.

It was gone before he spoke, but the second ship came along, and the pilot tube leaped into line with it Don checked meters on the crude panel before him, and then pressed the plastic handle of a long leverT There was the crash of heavy-duty oil switch.