Mystery of the French Gauge
By Jeff Seaborn, EAA 793688, EAA Canadian Council Chair with Ian Brown, Editor, EAA 657159
February 2020 - I'm rebuilding a unique aircraft called the Dalotel DM-165, and while trying to figure out the elevator trim system I noticed this gauge.
PIQUE? CABRE?
Not being a native French speaker, I had no idea what this gauge was for but it seemed to be connected to the trim system. It turns out that among many other meanings of the word piqué, pronounced peekay, one is "to dive." Cabre means "to climb" in aviation terms, although it means to rear up if you're talking about horses. What made this more complicated is that pique without the accent is a whole other word, and when capitalized, PIQUE is a bit ambiguous as the accent over the e is dropped.
Trim motor or a Swiss watch?
The seamstresses among you will know that piqué can also mean machine stitched or quilted. By contrast, pique means a pike in English and gives rise to words like picket fence and "piqued my interest." Now I've piqued your interest about the word piqué, eh?
