The songs "Family Man" and "Orabidoo" are credited to Oldfield and members of his touring band which included vocalist Maggie Reilly, drummer Morris Pert, and guitarist Rick Fenn.

Five Miles Out marked the beginning of a commercially successful period for Oldfield who scored his first UK top 10 album in seven years, peaking at No.

The tour saw Oldfield perform with a group consisting of drummers/percussionists Mike Frye and Morris Pert, guitarist/bassist Rick Fenn, keyboardist Tim Cross, and vocalist Maggie Reilly.

It features many familiar sounds from his earlier albums, such as uilleann pipes and female chorus, and extensive use of the Fairlight CMI.

The main guitar riff was devised by Fenn, from which Oldfield wrote the chorus and Reilly the verses with assistance from Cross.

The track opens with the theme to "Conflict" from QE2 and closes with Reilly singing three verses about "Ireland's Eye" accompanied by acoustic guitar.

A sample from the Alfred Hitchcock film Young and Innocent (1937) is heard, specifically the moment where the conductor of a dance band criticises the drummer: "Don't come in again like that.

It was inspired by a near fatal flight that Oldfield had experienced from Barcelona to San Sebastián, where the inexperienced pilot received an incorrect weather forecast and flew through a thunderstorm.

When it came to writing the lyrics, Oldfield visited a local pub, "lined up a few pints of Guinness", and wrote the words using a rhyming dictionary with the aeronautical terms he could think of as a basis.

The cover features a Lockheed Model 10 Electra[citation needed] aircraft, with similar markings to the one flown by Amelia Earhart in 1937.

The inner liner notes (originally the inner gatefold of the vinyl sleeve) feature the track sheet for "Taurus II", with the lyrics of "Five Miles Out" embedded within.