This page presents additional information about the tracks in Pierre's "Aviator Music" (the CD Mix).
1.  "Five Miles Out" by Michael Oldfield
Since the vocoder is a little hard to make out, here are the lyrics for this fitting beginning to our perilous aerial voyage:

                              Five Miles Out
                                     
  music and lyrics by Mike Oldfield
  sung by Mike Oldfield and Maggie Riley
 
    ____________________________________________
 
      What do you do when your falling,
      You've got 30 degrees and you're stalling out?
      And it's 24 miles to your beacon;
      There's a crack in the sky and the warning's out.

      Don't take that dive again!
      Push through that band of rain!

      Five miles out,
      Just hold your heading true.
      Got to get your finest out.
      You're Number 1, anticipating you.
      Climbing out.
      Just hold your heading true.
      Got to get your finest out.
      You're Number 1, anticipating you.

      Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!
      Calling all stations!
      This is Golf-Mike-Oscar-Victor-Juliet
      IMC CU.NIMB...icing,
      In great difficulty, over.

      The traffic controller is calling,
      "Victor-Juliet, your identity.
      I have you lost in the violent storm!
      Communicate or squawk 'Emergency'!"

      Don't take that dive again!
      Push through that band of rain!

      Lost in static, 18,
      And the storm is closing in now.
     Automatic, 18!
      (Got to push through!) Trapped in living hell!

      Your a prisoner of the dark sky,
      The propeller blades are still!
      And the evil eye of the hurricane's
      Coming in now for the kill.

      Our hope's with you,
      Rider in the blue.
      Welcome's waiting, we're anticipating
      You'll be celebrating, when you're down and braking.


      Climbing out.
      (Climbing, climbing)
      Five miles out.
      (Climbing, climbing)
      Five miles out,
      Just hold your heading true.
      Got to get your finest out....
      (Climbing, climbing)
      Five miles out,
      Just hold your heading true.
      Got to get your finest out....
      (Climbing, climbing)
      Climbing out.
      Just hold your heading true.
      Got to get your finest out....
      (Climbing, climbing)
      Five miles out,
      Just hold your heading true.
      Got to get your finest out....
      (Climbing, climbing)
      Climbing out.
      Just hold your heading true.
      Got to get your finest out....
      (Climbing, climbing)
      Climbing out.
      Just hold your heading true.
      Got to get your finest out....
2.  "Eight Miles High" by The Byrds

Hmm, that's funny, the song doesn't seem to be literally about being at 40,000 feet...


5.  "My Centurion" by Gary Numan
From the liner notes of "The Best of Gary Numan 1978-1983":

SPRING - 1982
"At the end of January, Gary Numan flew his single engined Cessna Centurion to the Cannes Music Festival, in the south of France.  On board was Gary's father, Tony Webb, Bill Fowler from WEA Records and Tim who was at the controls on the return journey.  Once again, the plane developed a fault with the fuel gauge and it showed that there was enough fuel in the tank for another two hours' flying time.  The tank was, in fact, empty and the plane began to lose height.  Over the Hampshire countryside Tim had to bring the plane down and make a forced landing.  They crashed into a field, bounced across it until they eventually hit a telegraph pole, swung around and careered into the busy A3051 narrowly missing fast moving traffic.  Miraculously nobody was hurt but the incident was and to a certain extent still is mis-reported in the media even today.  Since that time Gary has become the butt of jokes and jibes, his successful aerobatic displays at air shows are appreciated only by dedicated and loyal fans, those that understand the rudiments of flying and of course his fellow experienced pilots. It's a pity that the vast majority of people still believe what they read in the newspapers." 
8.  "While the Earth Sleeps" by Peter Gabriel and Deep Forest  (from the soundtrack to STRANGE DAYS, 1995)

A sample of Kate Petrova singing "Dali Znaesh Mila Majko" figures prominently.  The words are Macedonian:

Dali znaesh, mila Majko,
Shto sum ne srekjna?
Cel den doma sama sedam,
Nadvor ne smejam.

(Do you know, Mother,
How unlucky I am?
I sit at home all day,
I am not allowed to go outside.)

Peter Gabriel takes up these words and follows with a stream of deliberate gibberish.  It means absolutely nothing!
1.  Five Miles Out -- Mike Oldfield
2.  Eight Miles High -- The Byrds
3.  Fly By Night -- Rush
4.  Eagle -- ABBA
5.  My Centurion -- Gary Numan
6.  Sax and Violins -- Talking Heads
7.  Synchronicity -- The Police
8.  While the Earth Sleeps -- Peter Gabriel & Deep Forest
9.  You Take Me Up -- Thompson Twins
10. Tell Me When (Utah Saints mix) -- The Human League
11. Blow Away -- The Spoons
12. Roam -- The B-52's
13. Down Under -- Men At Work
14. Antarctica -- Men Without Hats
15. To France -- Mike Oldfield
16. On My Way Home -- Enya


9.  "You Take Me Up" by Thompson Twins
The Thompson Twins, for a good part of their career a trio, are named after the two bumbling detective characters in the "Tintin" comic book by Belgian illustrator Herge'.
6.  "Sax and Violins" by Talking Heads
From the soundtrack to my second-favourite movie, UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD (1991).
14.  "Antarctica" by Men Without Hats
I slipped in this song from the 1980's electropop band from Montreal, in honour of the Canadians who flew to the South Pole in pitch darkness in winter to rescue a U.S. man suffering from a pancreas inflammation.  Sometimes in summer the coast of Antarctica is bearable, but the smart pilot steers clear of Antarctica unless driven by the most pressing mission of mercy...
15.  "To France" by Michael Oldfield
Not a song about flying, but about Mary Queen of Scots who missed her boat to escape England.
16.  "On My Way Home" by Enya
Wherever you roam, there's no place like home...
The ending of the song contains the line "Turn it up, turn it up, turn it up, up, adieu." -- the same as the bridging lyric in her Top Ten hit, "Orinoco Flow".