Definition
An imaginary line extending laterally from the pilot's eye, parallel to the airplane's lateral axis, used during eights-on-pylons to judge whether the pylon is being held correctly. When the airplane is at the correct pivotal altitude and bank, this line appears to remain pointed at the pylon throughout the turn.
Plain English
A pretend line that runs sideways out through the pilot's eye, level with the wings. During eights-on-pylons, the pilot uses it to check that the pylon stays lined up with the wing as the airplane circles around it.
Context Anchor
Used during eights on pylons when the pilot sights a selected ground point off the side of the airplane during each turn.
Derivation
"Projected" comes from Latin proicere, meaning to throw forward or extend outward. The line is not real — it is mentally extended (projected) from the pilot's eye out into space to serve as a visual aiming reference.
Why Pilots Care
Keeping the projected reference line aligned ensures the airplane remains at pivotal altitude, prevents altitude changes, and produces a clean, constant-radius turn around the pylon.
Grounding Statement
Picture a straight sighting line extending from your seat out past the wing to the selected point on the ground.
Intuition Check
Projected does not mean shown on a screen or drawn on the ground. Here it means imagined as extending outward from the airplane as a sighting line.
Example Sentence 1
As the airplane banked into the turn, the pilot kept the pylon fixed on the projected reference line off the left wingtip.
Example Sentence 2
At the correct altitude the projected reference line stayed fixed relative to the wingtip as the airplane circled the pylon.