Is there a more specific term than 'flight line' for straight lines flown during flight? I work for a small software startup, where its just my boss and I. Prior to this job, I had no experience with aircraft. We have a client that uses our software to fly a pattern over an area, where they fly straight for a while, turn around, and fly back over an adjacent area. They do this so that they can canvas an entire area. I sketched out what this looks like below.

      (start) ---------------------&gt; (turn around)
                                    )
(turn around) &lt;--------------------- 
             (
              ---------------------&gt; (turn around)
                                    )
(turn around) &lt;---------------------
             (
              ------------&gt;    (and so on)


My boss refers to one of these straight flights as a "flight line". When I looked up the term "flight line" though, I found that it has a few different meanings all related to where the aircraft is parked or serviced on the ground.

So my question: Is there a more correct term than "flight line" that describes the patterns our client flies, which are these sets of straight lines?
Although my aviation knowledge is not all encompassing, I would argue that you, your boss, and your software company may want to know your audience as well as possible. The same terminology can mean different things to different segments of society. For instance, uncontrolled airspace/airfield would mean something totally different to a pilot than it would mean to the media or general public. 

A quick search of the Federal Aviation Regulations/Airmen’s Information Manual, the Pilots Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge , and the Airplane Flying Handbook only garners results describing specific areas of an airfield and the personnel working there. My experience in civilian aviation and in the military is consistent with this usage. When pilots, ATC, and others in the aviation field describe an aircrafts path, they use terms such as the following:


Route
Return route
Round-robin route
Great circle route
Flight path
Leg
Direct leg
Course
Direct course
Track


The term you are probably looking for is Transect pattern consisting of transect lines.

Someone more knowledgeable might have a better term.