Learning to Fly

This is an unusual song in that it combines the metaphor of flying with proper flight instructions: Propellers, fully forward Flaps, set, 10 degrees Pink Floyd frontman David Gilmour to Only Music: "'Learning to Fly' is about breaking free and the actual mechanics of learning to fly an airplane."

Around this time, David Gilmour was taking flying lessons. He got help with the lyric from Anthony Moore, a lyricist who also worked on the track "On The Turning Away." Moore's idea was to incorporate phrases Gilmour would hear in his lessons as he was learning to fly a plane. Gilmour took quite an interest in flying and vintage aircraft, a hobby enabled in part by the commercial success of this song. He later started a company called Intrepid Aviation.

The dubbed over voice of pilots talking is actually a recording of drummer Nick Mason during a flying lesson. According to his book Inside Out, both Mason and Gilmour were terrified of flying but eventually got their pilot licenses.