Military Operations Area (MOA) – Airspace established outside positive control area to separate/segregate certain nonhazardous military activities from IFR traffic and to identify for VFR traffic where these activities are conducted.
MOA’s are established to contain certain military activities such as air combat maneuvers, air intercepts, acrobatics, etc
From the FAA AIM:
MOAs consist of airspace of defined vertical [...]
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Posted in Abbreviations and Acronyms, ATC Terms | Tagged FAA Pilot's Handbook
MRO – MRO is an Aviation Term defined as “Maintenance and Repair Organization”
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Posted in Abbreviations and Acronyms
JAA – Joint Aviation Authorities – JAA dates back to 1970 (when it was known as the Joint Airworthiness Authorities). Originally its objectives were only to produce common certification codes for large aircraft and for engines. This was in order to meet the needs of European Industry and particularly for products manufactured by international consortia [...]
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Posted in Abbreviations and Acronyms, ICAO Terms
JAR – Joint Aviation Requirements - Prior to the creation of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) the Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) was responsible for publishing regulations governing the operations, maintenance, licensing and certification/design standards for aircraft. These regulations are known as Joint Aviation Requirements (JARs).
JARs had no legal status until they were ratified by national governments, but [...]
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Posted in Abbreviations and Acronyms, ICAO Terms
Load Cell - A component in an electronic weighing system that is placed between the jack and the jack pad on the aircraft. The load cell contains strain gauges whose resistance changes with the weight on the cell.
Electronic load cells are used when the aircraft is weighed by raising it on jacks. The cells are placed between the jack [...]
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Posted in Aircraft | Tagged Weight & Balance
An aircraft system which provides head-up guidance to the pilot during flight. It includes the display element, sensors, computers and power supplies, indications and controls. It may receive inputs from an airborne navigation system or flight guidance system.
Generally the HUD provides navigation and air data (airspeed in relation to approach reference speed, altitude, left/right and [...]
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Posted in Abbreviations and Acronyms, Aircraft Navigation Terms, Avionics Terms | Tagged Avionics
The Air Transportation Oversight System (ATOS) is the Federal Aviation Administration’s primary tool for overseeing the nation’s airlines. The fundamental principle of ATOS is that air carriers must have properly designed systems to eliminate or lessen risks before they result in accidents or incidents.
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Posted in Airline Terms, Aviation Safety Terms, FAA Terms | Tagged Air Transportation, Air Transportation Oversight System, ATOS, Aviation Oversight System, Aviation Safety, FAA
Q-Corner or Coffin Corner is a term used to describe operations at high altitudes where low indicated airspeeds yield high true airspeeds (MACH number) at high angles of attack. The high angle of attack results in flow separation which causes buffet. Turning maneuvers at these altitudes increase the angle of attack and result in stability [...]
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Posted in Aircraft | Tagged Aerodynamics, Aircraft
MACH -Named after Ernst Mach, a 19th century Austrian physicist, is the ratio of an aircraft’s true speed as compared to the local speed of sound at a given time or place.
MACH number (MACH Speed) is a decimal number (M) representing the true airspeed (TAS) relationship to the local speed of sound (e.g., TAS [...]
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Posted in Aircraft | Tagged Aerodynamics, Aircraft, Airspeed, Systems
Drag Divergence is a phenomenon that occurs when an airfoil’s drag increases sharply and requires substantial increases in power (thrust) to produce further increases in speed. This is not to be confused with MACH crit. The drag increase is due to the unstable formation of shock waves that transform a large amount of energy into [...]
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Posted in Aircraft | Tagged Aerodynamics
An important part of learning about any profession is becoming familiar with the language that is unique to the trade. Aviation has no shortage of unique terms, some of which are defined within these pages.