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
VFR terminal area charts are helpful when flying in or near Class B airspace. They have a scale of 1:250,000
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Posted in Aircraft Navigation Terms | Tagged FAA Pilot's Handbook
Transponder Codes are one of 4,096 four-digit discrete codes ATC assigns to distinguish between aircraft.
Emergency Transponder Codes are set by pilots as follows:
Code 7500 (hijack code)
Code 7600 (loss of radio communications code)
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Posted in Aircraft Navigation Terms, Avionics Terms | Tagged FAA Pilot's Handbook
Compressor Stall
A Compressor Stall in a gas turbine engine is a condition in an axial-flow compressor in which one or more stages of rotor blades fail to pass air smoothly to the succeeding stages. A stall condition is caused by a pressure ratio that is incompatible with the engine rpm. Compressor stall will be indicated by a [...]
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Posted in Aircraft Powerplant Terms, Video | Tagged FAA Pilot's Handbook
CDI – Course Deviation Indicator
A Navigation Instrument that indicates the course and direction to a tuned VOR station
It consists of (1) omnibearing selector (OBS) sometimes referred to as the course selector, (2) a CDI needle (Left-Right Needle), and (3) a TO/FROM indicator. The course selector is an azimuth dial that can be rotated to select a [...]
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Posted in Avionics Terms | Tagged FAA Pilot's Handbook
Compass Rose – A small circle graduated in 360 increments, to show direction expressed in degrees.
Most airports have a compass rose, which is a series of lines marked out on a ramp or maintenance run up area where there is no magnetic interference. Lines, oriented to magnetic north, are painted every 30° which is used [...]
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Posted in Aviation Maintenance Terms | Tagged FAA Pilot's Handbook, Instruments, Maintenance, Navigation
Kollsman Window – Altimeter – Paul Kollsman invented the first accurate Barometric Altimeter wiith an accuracy of a few feet. Prior to Kollsman’s invention, altimeters could only determine an airplane’s altitude within a few hundred feet. Kollsman’s invention was used on the first “Blind Flight” conducted by James “Jimmy” Doolittle proving the ability to fly using only instruments.
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Posted in Avionics Terms, Video | Tagged Altimeter, Avionics, FAA Pilot's Handbook, Navigation, Systems
Region of Reverse Command
Flight regime in which flight at a higher airspeed requires a lower power setting and a lower airspeed requires a higher power setting in order to maintain altitude.
Aerodynamic Properties of the Aircraft
The aerodynamic properties of an aircraft generally determine the power requirements at various conditions of flight, while the powerplant capabilities generally determine the [...]
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Posted in Aircraft | Tagged FAA Pilot's Handbook
Accelerated Stop Distance is the distance required to accelerate to V1 with all engines at takeoff power, experience an engine failure at V1, and abort the takeoff and bring the airplane to a stop using braking action only and not reverse thrust. Here is a video undergoing an Accelerate Stop Test during certification
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Posted in Aircraft, Video | Tagged Aircraft, Certification, FAA Pilot's Handbook, Take Off
Vg Diagram is the flight operating strength of an aircraft is presented on a graph whose vertical scale is based on load factor and the horizontal scale represents velocity.
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Posted in Aircraft | Tagged FAA Pilot's Handbook
