A dictionary of Confusable Phrases: More Than 10,000 Idioms and Collocations

plain people

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plain sailing • plane sailing
plain sailing —
1
. (Nautical) sailing in open unrestricted
waters: He can take an observation and is acquainted with
that part of navigation called plain sailing. 2. an easy, straight-
forward task, procedure, etc.: Once we’ve fixed the computer
it will be plain sailing.
plane sailing —(Nautical) calculation of a ship’s position as
if the earth were flat instead of spherical: In plane sailing, the
principal terms made use of are the course, distance, departure
… any two of which being given the others can be found.
plain to someone • plain with someone
plain to someone —(of things) easy to understand and clear
to a person: It was made quite plain to me that my career
would be a very short one in the police service.
plain with someone —(of people) frank and honest in dealing
with another person: To be plain with you, there is no hope
of your passing this examination.
plane man • plane people
plane man —(Mining ) a worker who controls cars on a self-
acting incline (loaded car going down one track pulls empty cars
up on other): A laborer who controls the movement of cars is
also called drum runner, monitor operator, plane man.
Note: 
The expression does not correlate in meaning with the
compound planesman— a person who operates the diving planes
on a submarine: The diving planesmen tilt the forward planes
down and the after planes up.
plane people —(also: jet people) asylum seekers, refugees, or
immigrants who relocate by airplane: About 2,500 of these
“plane people” are leaving each month…. This number is
roughly equal to the total monthly arrivals in the region by
boat people.