航空英语证书考试(PEC)-民航与飞行术语.doc

航空英语证书考试(PEC)-民航与飞行术语

A
AAIB: Air Accident Investigation Branch of the Department of Transportation of the United Kingdom. Its role is to investigate air accidents. The letters AAIB also refer to equivalent organizations in Iceland, Singapore and Switzerland, among others. In the United States, the NTSB plays that role.
AB: Air Base. More often used when describing a military airport.
ACARS: Aircraft Communication Adressing and Reporting System
ADELT: Automatically Deployable Emergency Locator Transmitter. See ELT.
ADF: Automatic Direction Finder. Radio compass giving a relative bearing to a NDB.
ADI: Attitude Deviation Indicator. Enhanced artificial horizon with pitch and roll information. It is part of a flight director system.
ADT: Approved Departure Time
AFB: Air Force Base
AFCS: Automatic Flight Control System. It is an advanced autopilot.
AFDS: Autopilot and Flight Director System
AGL: Above Ground Level
AIRMET: Aircraft’s Meteorological Information. A type of weather advisory regarding certain weather conditions (turbulence, icing, low visiblity) which could pose a threat to only smaller types of aircraft. SIGMET is a more inclusive type of advisory.
Alternate: Airport indicated on a flight plan where it is possible to divert the aircraft from its scheduled destination (in case of bad weather or any other major situation).
Altimeter setting: barometric pressure reading in millibars (for example: 1015), or inches of mercury (for example: 29.80) used to set a pressure altimeter’s sub-scale to QFE or QNH.
APP: Approach control
APU: Auxiliary Power Unit. Device (usually a small turbine) that provides power for engine-starting and other systems while on the ground. Such device is present on large aircraft and some business jets, and replaces the GPU.
ARTCC: Air Route Traffic Control Centre
ASI: Airspeed Indicator
ATA: Actual Time of Arrival
ATC: Air Traffic Control
ATCC: Air Traffic Control Centre
ATIS: Automatic Terminal Information Service. Automatically recorded message transmitted on a particular frequency, containing current weather conditions, QNH setting, active runways, etc., provided at the major airports.
AVGAS: Aviation Gasoline. Usually followed by the octane rating. Used by piston-engined aircraft.
AVTUR: Aviation Turbine fuel (kerosene). Used by turboprops and jet aircraft.

B
Base: Base of operations or a hub for an airline. The base leg is also one of the many words describing the approach segments. See Final for a diagram.
Bleed air: Hot compressed air taken from turbine engines.
Black Box: Popular name given to either the CVR or the FDR used to investigate an accident.
BRG: Bearing. Horizontal direction to/from a point, expressed in degrees (for example: 000 or 360 is North, 090 is East).

C
CAA: Civil Aviation Authority. An organization in charge of defining aviation safety standards. The United Kingdom and New Zealand, among others, have organizations with that exact name and role. In the United States, CAA stood for the Civil Aeronautics Administration, a fore-runner of today’s FAA.
CAB: Civil Aeronautics Board. Former government agency of the United States responsible, among other things, of investigating air accidents (duties taken over by the NTSB) and controlling which routes the airlines could fly and what fares they could charge (prior to the Airline Deregulation Act).
Callsign: Phrase used in radio transmissions to identify an aircraft, before proceeding to actual instructions. A callsign for a commercial aircraft may be “Swissair 111″ or “TWA 800″. As for a private plane, it could be something like “Cessna 13 Whisky”, “Baron 232 Zulu” or “November 17 Victor”. Military callsigns, including transport of heads of state or government officials are more diverse and depend on squadron, type of mission, etc.
Capt: Captain
CAS: Calibrated Airspeed. IAS corrected for air density and compressibility.
CDI: Course Deviation Indicator. The vertical needle of a VOR indicator which shows the aircraft’s position relative to the selected radial.
Ceiling: Height above ground or water level of the base of the lowest layer of cloud, below 20,000 feet, covering more than half of the sky. Service ceiling also means an aircraft’s density altitude at which its maximum rate of climb is lower or equal to 100 feet per minute. The absolute celing is the highest altitude at which the aircraft can maintain level flight.
CFB: Canadian Forces Base.
Clearance: Authorization given by ATC to proceed as requested or instructed (for example: “Cleared for take-off”, “Cleared for visual approach”, “Cleared to land”)
Coast track: Status of an aircraft that is no longer giving a radar return. The air traffic control screen will display this status (usually with the acronym “CST”) and will temporarily continue displaying the aircraft’s movement at the last heading and speed, as if it was “coasting”.
COMAT: Company Material. Non-revenue cargo, such as aircraft spare parts.
Connection: Transfer between two different flights at an intermediate airport (for example: flight 123 from New York to Miami followed by flight 456 from Miami to Sao Paulo). If a passenger’s flights are operated by two different airlines, they may check baggage or obtain boarding passes for the entire itinerary directly at the departure city’s airport, pursuant to interlining agreements or airline alliances. A connection is not the same as a stopover.
Crosswind: Wind perpendicular to the motion of the aircraft. The crosswind leg is also one of the many words describing the approach segments. See Final for a diagram.
CRT: Cathode Ray Tube. Television-like screens used in flight decks of new-generation aircraft, replacing the conventional instruments. See also EFIS.
CST: See Coast track. CST may also stand for Central Standard Time.
CVR: Cockpit Voice Recorder. One of the so-called “black boxes”. It is a device recording the last 30 minutes of sound inside the cockpit, before impact. Sounds recorded include all conversations, radio transmissions, and background noise.
CWR: Color Weather Radar

D
DCT: Direct
Dead-heading: See Repositioning.
Density altitude: pressure altitude (as indicated by the altimeter) corrected for air temperature.
DH: Decision Height. Height on a precision approach at which the pilot must have the runway approach lights in sight to continue descent, or if not, initiate a go-around. Below the DH, the pilot has no other choice than land the plane.
DI: Direction Indicator. A gyro instrument which indicates the magnetic heading of an aircraft. The DI, also known as the directional gyro (DG), is free of the turning errors associated with magnetic compasses but is prone to precession (wander) and must be reset against the magnetic compass at intervals.
Direct flight: A flight that operates from point A to point B without a connection. A direct flight is not necessarily non-stop.
DME: Distance-Measuring Equipment. A combination of ground and airborne equipment which gives a continuous slant range distance-from-station readout by measuring time-lapse of a signal transmitted by the aircraft to the station and responded back. DMEs can also provide groundspeed and time-to-station readouts by differentiation.
Downwind: One of the many words describing the approach segments. See Final for a diagram.
DVOR: Doppler VOR.

E
EAT: Estimated (or expected) Approach Time
ECAM: Electronic Centralized Aircraft Monitor. A form of CRT
EFIS: Electronic Flight Instrument System, in which multi-function CRT displays replace traditional instruments for providing flight, navigation and aircraft systems information, forming a so-called “glass cockpit”.
EGT: Exhaust Gas Temperature. One of the flight deck’s engine gauges.
EICAS: Engine Indication and Crew Alerting System. A CRT display indicating engine performance and alerts.
ELB: Emergency Locator Beacon. See ELT (below).
ELT: Emergency Locator Transmitter. Small radio transmitter fixed on the aircraft’s structure, automatically activated by impact or water immersion, transmitting a code enabling SAR satellites or search units equipped with Direction Finders to locate the aircraft’s crash site. Also called ADELT or ELB.
ER: Extended Range. Suffix used by some aircraft models (for example: Boeing 767-300ER)
ETA: Estimated Time of Arrival
ETD: Estimated Time of Departure
ETE: Estimated Time Enroute
ETOPS: Extended-range Twin Operations. Certification given to two-engine aircraft for long overwater flights. Popular deformation of this term is “Engines Turning Or Passengers Swimming”!

F
F/A: Flight Attendant. Also known as Air Hostess in the UK, formerly known as Steward(ess) in North America.
FAA: Federal Aviation Administration. A national aviation authority in charge of defining aviation safety standards in the United States. In some countries, such as the United Kingdom, an equivalent organization is called the CAA.
FBO: Fixed-Base Operator. Supplier of fuel, maintenance, aircraft rental or sale, flight training, etc, at the airport.
FBW: Fly-By-Wire. Aircraft controls where the pilot’s commands (bank, yaw…) are transmitted to control surfaces electronically or via fiber optics, instead of mechanical linkage. Also called FBL (Fly-By-Light).
FDR: Flight Data Recorder. One of the so-called “black boxes”. It is actually painted bright orange to be easily identified among aircraft debris, and records various parameters such as altitude, heading, airspeed, engine statistics, etc… It is used to investigate in the case of an accident.
F/E: Flight Engineer. Also known as Second Officer.
Ferry flight: See Repositioning.
FIDS: Flight Information Display System. Real-time flight arrival and departure data for an airport, either as a board inside or near the airport terminal or a virtual version on a website or teletext.
Fin number: See FN below.
Final: Final Approach. One of the many words describing the approach segments. The part of a landing sequence or aerodrome circuit procedure in which the aircraft has made its final turn and is inbound to the active runway. See picture on the right.
FL: Flight Level. Altitude at barometric setting of 1013.2 millibars or 29.92 inches of mercury, expressed in rounds hundreds of feet. This is usual mostly above 18,000 feet. FL350 is 35,000 feet.
F/O: First Officer. Also known as Co-Pilot.
FMS: Flight Management System
FN: Fleet Number. Internal number, for the use of the airline, identifying a particular aircraft within the fleet.
FPL: Filed Flight Plan
FPM: Feet Per Minute. Unit of measure of an aircraft’s rate of climb or descent.
Freedom of the air: Commercial aviation right governing carriage of payload between or within countries. The following are recognized by the ICAO:
1st freedom: the right to overfly a country without landing (for example: Singapore Airlines from the United States to Singapore, overflying Russia)
2nd freedom: the right to stop in a country for refueling without transferring payload (for example: Airblue, a Pakistani airline, from the UK to Pakistan via Turkey for refueling)
3rd freedom: the right to carry payload from one’s country to another (for example: Air Canada flying from Canada to China)
4th freedom: the right to carry payload from another country to one’s own (for example: Air Canada flying back from China to Canada)
5th freedom: the right to carry payload from one’s country to another, then on to a third one (for example: Jet Airways, an Indian airline, from India to Belgium then on to Canada)
The following are not recognized by the ICAO but often mentioned:

6th freedom: the right to carry payload from one country to one’s own, then on to a third one (for example: Our Airline, formerly known as Air Nauru, from the Solomon Islands to Nauru then on to Kiribati)
7th freedom: the right to carry payload between two foreign countries as a stand-alone service (for example: OpenSkies, a British airline, from France to the United States)
8th freedom: the right to carry payload within a foreign country, as part of a flight originating/terminating in one’s own country (for example: Qantas from Australia to a US city, then on to a second US city)
9th freedom: the right to carry payload within a foreign country as a stand-alone service (for example: a hypothetical New Zealand airline flying between two cities in Australia)

G
GND: Ground
Go-Around: Balked approach, when the aircraft climbs away from the runway during the approach, to either start the approach again, or proceed to the alternate airport.
GPS: Global Positioning System (Navstar). Navigational system using orbiting satellites to determine the aircraft’s position on the Earth. Developed at first for military use, then widespread on commercial and private aircraft, it is now expected to replace the ground-based navigational systems for its accuracy and reliability.
GPU: Ground Power Unit
GPWS: Ground Proximity Warning System. A radar-based flight deck system to give pilots audible warning by means of horns, hooters, taped or synthetic voices of terrain close beneath an aircraft’s flight path. One of the GPWS’ warnings might be: “TERRAIN! WHOOP WHOOP! PULL UP!” or “WINDSHEAR! WINDSHEAR!”.
Ground speed: Actual speed of an airplane as measured relative to the ground.
GS: Glideslope. Vertical guidance, part of an ILS, establishing the safe glidepath to a runway. A standard ILS glideslope is 3 degrees.

H
HDG: Heading. The direction in which an aircraft’s nose points in flight in the horizontal plane, expressed in compass degrees (for example: 000 or 360 is North, 090 is East).
Heavy: Suffix used in radio transmission callsigns (for example: “United 492 Heavy”) to indicate the aircraft is capable of generating wake turbulence.
Holding pattern: Manoeuver consisting of making the aircraft turn around the aerodrome at an assigned altitude, while awaiting further ATC instructions.
HSI: Horizontal Situation Indicator. A cockpit navigation display, usually part of a flight-director system, which combines navigation and heading.
Hub-and-spoke: Route system in which an airline will fly the majority of its flights from/to the same city (the hub), thus offering several connecting possibilities, as opposed to fly a series of point-to-point flights. Example: instead of flying non-stop from Los Angeles to New York, from Phoenix to Washington, from Las Vegas to Boston, etc., an airline will offer all these routes via its hub in Chicago.

I
IAS: Indicated Airspeed. Airspeed indicated by the Airspeed Indicator, without correction for position error, altitude, or outside air temperature.
IATA: International Air Transport Association.
I/C: In Charge.
ICAO: International Civil Aviation Organization.
Ident: Squawk function of a transponder. When the “Ident” button is activated, an aircraft will briefly appear more distinctly on a radar scope. Used for identification or acknowledgement purposes.