Originally Posted by
patgarrett
...I also really like the analogy of "pushing tin" with "airplane guidance" and I wondered whether this is an expression that you guys use (informally, of course) to describe your work at the controls. As in, "I was really pushing some tin last night, brother," or "I don't know whether I push the tin, or the tin pushes me."
There are a lot of ATC facilities so someone somewhere may say these things, but they're not heard on the West Coast. A few people used to mention "moving metal", but that's really died out. People always have little euphemisms, but there's nothing widespread and certainly not "pushing tin".