The pilot sat large, his hands lightly on the wheel, feet on the rudder pedals. He seemed more a machine than a man, an extension of the plane. On the dashboard in front of him Brian saw the dials, switches, meters, knobs, levers, cranks, lights, handles that were wiggling and flickering, all indicating nothing that he understood and the pilot seemed the same way
What is the metaphor in this passage?
The metaphor in this passage is that the pilot is a machine, an extension of the plane, and the dashboard is a complex system of incomprehensible signals.