John's Aviation Terminology Page

ATC -- Air Traffic Control. The people in control towers (at airports that have them) to regulate takeoffs, landings, and planes moving through their general area.

CAVU -- Ceiling And Visibility Unlimited. Perfect flying weather -- no major clouds, no major haze. Doesn't say anything about wind, though.

CFI -- Certified Flight Instructor. Useful for keeping students from mistakingly thinking they can fly a plane.

Flare -- The point where an airplane floats above the runway just before touchdown. The idea is to bleed away airspeed before landing so that the plane will stay on the runway and not hop back into the air again (planes want to stay airborne).

IFR -- Instrument Flight Rules. An Instrument Rating is further training after a Pilot's license to allow pilots to fly in annoying weather. Thunderstorms and such are still out of the question, but flying in clouds is allowed. This is because the pilot has been trained much further. Not merely in flying by instruments alone, but also to understand the Air Traffic Control system, because an IFR flight is continuously monitored by ATC, radar, flight following, and a dozen other agencies to make sure the pilot isn't going to hit anything but annoying turbulence.

Pattern -- Also called 'circuits' by our Canadian, English, and Australian pilot friends. Generally, unless ATC tells you to do otherwise, there is a pattern planes follow to land: The 'downwind leg' is parallel to the runway about a half mile away in the opposite direction they are going to land on (for example, if landing on a runway going North, the downwind has you flying parallel to the runway a half mile out going South). At the end of the downwind leg, you turn 90 degrees to the 'base leg' and fly that 1/2 mile so you're getting near to being in line with the runway. You turn 90 degrees again, and you should be lined up for the 'final leg' or final approach. If everything was timed right, you're pointed right down the runway here and are ready to land. The purpose of the pattern is to get planes used to the airport conditions before landing, to space out traffic that is near the
airport so that everyone is sequenced nicely, and to give safe maneuvering room to lose altitude while keeping the runway and airport traffic in sight.

Runway XX -- runways are numbered after magnetic compass points, minus the 1's column (where North is 0, and 360, degrees). Cherokee Airport has one strip of asphalt, but it has a number at each end -- runway 4 and runway 22. When I sit on runway 4 ready to take off, my compass says I'm pointed at 40 degrees, that is, just to the north of northeast. Runway 22 is 220 degrees, or just to the south of southwest.

Slip -- a way to lose altitude in a hurry (on purpose), or slide into a final approach during a heavy wind. The technique is to put nearly full rudder in one direction, and then bank in the opposite. This keeps the plane almost level, except pointing to one side -- it looks strange (in a right slip, you are looking at the runway almost out your side window, not the front one, but you're heading for it anyway) but it works.

Stall -- The point at which wings fail to generate enough lift to keep the plane stable. This is kinda my definition, not necessarily the official one. When a wing is angled against the wind enough, it doesn't hold the plane in the air very well -- it is the angle that causes this, not the speed of the plane (remember road trips as a kid when you held your hand out the window and angled it like a wing? When your hand went near vertical, it didn't force your hand near to the top of the window anymore, your arm fell to the bottom -- it stalled.) Since these angles can accidently be exceeded during takeoffs and landings, different types of stalls
are practiced to the point of reflex at decent altitides so that you can learn without damaging the airport's runway.

Sumps -- Points underneath each fuel tank to test for contamination like water or other debris.

VFR -- Visual Flight Rules. Private Pilots start as VFR certified. This means that, in most cases, they must have about 3 miles of visibility, be 500 feet below clouds, 1000 feet above clouds, and/or 2000 feet next to clouds at a bare minimum. Unless they have an Instrument Rating (and all the associated control along with that...see IFR), they are required to avoid all clouds and weather.

VOR -- VHF Omnidirectional Receiver. One of the more common navigational aids that the FAA has dropped all over the country (and sometimes the world). A VOR sends out a radio signal that is slightly different in each direction (the difference is phase, if you want to get technical). So, an airplane's VOR tool listens to the VOR, and by measuring the difference in the radio, it can tell which direction it is from the VOR. Since your chart will show where the VOR is, and you now know where you are in relation to the VOR, it has helped you figure out where in the local area you might happen to be.