Pilot, with excited cry, getting large bit of machinery (8)
I believe the answer is:
flywheel
'machinery' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'pilot with excited cry getting large bit of' is the wordplay.
'pilot' becomes 'fly' (synonyms).
'with excited cry getting' becomes 'whee' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'bit of' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'large' is 'l'.
'fly'+'whee'+'l'='FLYWHEEL'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for flywheel that I've seen before include "equaliser?" , "governor" , "Rotor storing power" , "Rotating power store" , "Regulator used to smooth the running of a reciprocating engine" .)