Wikipedia
A falling leaf (also called a rudder stall or oscillation stall) is an aerobatic maneuver in which an aircraft performs a wings-level stall (the airplane stops flying and starts falling) which begins to induce a spin. This spin is countered with the rudder, which begins a spin in the opposite direction that must be countered with rudder, and the process is repeated as many times as the pilot determines. During the maneuver, the plane resembles a leaf falling from the sky; first slipping to one side, stopping, and then slipping to the other direction; continuing a side-to-side motion as it drifts toward the ground.
Usage examples of "falling leaf".
Every falling leaf became a spangle, each rope a chain of fireflies.
She had dropped on me like a falling leaf, and then let herself drop to the ground.
She reached out to catch a falling leaf that was twirling down at an angle toward her from one of the forest giants.
He wanted to watch her for a longer time, but the vision whirled away like a falling leaf.
He gazed at them beseechingly, and his mind seemed to sway slowly back down to earth like a falling leaf.
Nuressa found herself walking slowly toward the hole where Amandarn had gone, her boots crunching on the shifting stones where the thief had walked with no more noise than a falling leaf.
Beneath the vault of heaven, a single life is nothing, no more than a catch of breath, a shattering tear, a falling leaf.
As you have seen a falling leaf turn in air, so the plane circled, boring with terrific speed down, down, down through the mists, down into the unknown!
Dread brought it up and checked, not because he thought the gear man was that incompetent, but because he was in that singular, high-flying and godlike modehe wanted every spark, every falling leaf, at his fingertips and under his control.