flying blind
Navigating without visibility
Flying blind originally describes piloting an aircraft without visual reference to the ground or horizon, relying entirely on instruments.
The phrase extends to any situation where you proceed without the information you'd normally want: We're flying blind here—no one gave us the budget numbers.
It suggests acting despite uncertainty, not recklessness but necessity.
- guessingEstimating without certainty
- in the darkUninformed about something
- instinctInnate behavioral tendency
- gut feelingInstinctive sense about something
- seat of pantsImprovising without preparation
darkness · foggy · fog of war · uncertain · groping · improvising · winging · wing and prayer · navigation · cockpit · instruments · risky · trusting · unknown · murky · hunch · fumbling · disoriented
- Blindblindsided
- flightfly, aviation, aircraft, airplane, airplanes
- Assumptionsfalse assumption, stereotypes, generalizations, biases, prejudices
- foolishnessfoolishness, silliness, foolish, stupid, folly
- improvisingad-lib, ad-libbing, riff, riffing, jamming
- Incompetencebungle, failure, botch, inability, blunder
flying blindfully informed
well-informed · in the know · eyes wide open · informed · in the loop
flying blindguided
Led with assistance
on autopilot · by the book · charted course · methodically · systematically
flying, blind, flight, blindly, blinds, blinded, blinding, blindness, blindfold