ICAO-Aligned
Terms primarily defined at the ICAO level (Annexes, Doc series) and adopted similarly by national authorities worldwide.
Operational(11)
Aircraft Approach Category (Cat A-E)
Aircraft approach category is a grouping of aircraft by reference landing speed (Vat), used to select the correct line of instrument-approach and circling minima. The categories run A (below 91 kt), B (91-120 kt), C (121-140 kt), D (141-165 kt), and E (166 kt and above).
Altimeter & Altimetry Settings
The pressure altimeter is an aneroid-barometer instrument that displays altitude by sensing the drop in atmospheric pressure with height. Altimetry settings — QNH, QNE, and QFE, entered in the Kollsman window — tell the instrument what reference to measure from, so the same aircraft can read height above sea level, above the standard datum, or above a field.
ATC (Air Traffic Control)
Air Traffic Control (ATC) is the ground-based service provided by qualified controllers to direct aircraft on the ground and through controlled airspace for the primary purposes of preventing collisions, organising and expediting the flow of air traffic, and providing advisory information and assistance, governed internationally by ICAO Annex 11 (Air Traffic Services) and ICAO Doc 4444 (PANS-ATM), and in the United States by FAA Order JO 7110.65 (Air Traffic Control) and 14 CFR Part 65 (controller certification).
Glass Cockpit (PFD/MFD)
A glass cockpit replaces the analog instrument panel with electronic displays — a primary flight display (PFD) and one or more multi-function displays (MFD). Solid-state sensors, an attitude and heading reference system (AHRS) and an air data computer (ADC), feed a single integrated picture of attitude, altitude, airspeed, heading, and navigation.
ICAO Aircraft Type Designator (Doc 8643)
An ICAO aircraft type designator is a two- to four-character code that ICAO assigns to an aircraft type so it can be identified unambiguously in flight plans and air traffic systems — for example C172 for a Cessna 172, PA28 for a Piper PA-28, and B738 for a Boeing 737-800. The designators, along with each type's wake-turbulence category and engine data, are published in ICAO Doc 8643.
ICAO Location Indicator (Four-Letter Codes)
An ICAO location indicator is a four-letter code that ICAO assigns to an aerodrome or ground station to identify it uniquely worldwide — for example KJFK for New York John F. Kennedy, EGLL for London Heathrow, and LFPG for Paris Charles de Gaulle. The codes are published in ICAO Doc 7910 and used throughout flight plans, NOTAMs, METARs, and TAFs.
PANS-OPS (ICAO Doc 8168, Aircraft Operations)
PANS-OPS is ICAO's Procedures for Air Navigation Services — Aircraft Operations, published as Doc 8168. It carries the internationally applied criteria both for designing instrument flight procedures and for flying them, and it is the source layer beneath the published approaches, departures, and holds a pilot uses every day outside the United States.
Performance-Based Navigation (PBN)
Performance-Based Navigation is the ICAO framework that specifies aircraft navigation capability in terms of required performance — accuracy, integrity, continuity, and functionality — rather than by naming particular sensors. Defined in ICAO Doc 9613, it is expressed through RNAV and RNP navigation specifications and underpins most modern instrument approaches.
RNP (Required Navigation Performance)
Required Navigation Performance (RNP) is the ICAO Performance-Based Navigation (PBN) specification, defined in ICAO Doc 9613 (PBN Manual), that requires the aircraft to maintain a specified lateral navigation accuracy with onboard performance monitoring and alerting, distinguishing RNP from the related RNAV (Area Navigation) specification in which monitoring and alerting are not required.
Stabilized Approach Criteria
Stabilized approach criteria are the operator-defined performance gates an aircraft must satisfy by a specified altitude (typically 1,000 ft AAL in IMC, 500 ft AAL in VMC) — codified in ICAO Doc 9870 (Manual on the Prevention of Runway Excursions), FAA AC 120-71 / 91-79, and EASA AMC1 ORO.GEN.110 — below which the approach must be discontinued via a missed approach if any criterion is unmet.
VASI & PAPI
VASI (Visual Approach Slope Indicator) and PAPI (Precision Approach Path Indicator) are runway light systems that show a pilot whether the aircraft is above, on, or below the visual glide path using combinations of red and white lights, most commonly to a 3-degree descent angle.
Regulatory(8)
Canadian Aviation Regulations (CARs)
The Canadian Aviation Regulations (SOR/96-433) are Canada's consolidated body of civil-aviation rules. They are organized into numbered Parts and backed by binding Standards incorporated by reference, and they are administered by Transport Canada Civil Aviation.
Chicago Convention (Convention on International Civil Aviation)
The Chicago Convention is the 1944 treaty that founded ICAO and established the legal framework for international civil aviation. It was signed at Chicago on 7 December 1944 and entered into force on 4 April 1947, and its provisions are the parent authority for the technical Annexes and every ICAO Standard.
IAOPA (International Council of Aircraft Owner and Pilot Associations)
IAOPA is a non-profit federation of roughly 80 to 100 national general-aviation membership organizations worldwide. Formed in 1962 and permanently established in 1964, it represents general aviation internationally, holds observer status at ICAO, and is active in EASA rulemaking through its European affiliate.
SARPs (Standards and Recommended Practices)
SARPs are the technical specifications adopted by the ICAO Council under Article 37 of the Chicago Convention and set out across the 19 Annexes. ICAO now manages more than 12,000 SARPs, split into binding Standards and non-binding Recommended Practices, which flow down into national rulebooks such as the FAA's regulations and EASA's Parts.
State Safety Programme (SSP)
A State Safety Programme is the safety-management system a country itself operates, required under ICAO Annex 19, through which the State manages aviation safety at the national level. It is built on four components — safety policy and objectives, safety risk management, safety assurance, and safety promotion — and it is the framework inside which every operator's own SMS is expected to nest.
The 19 ICAO Annexes to the Chicago Convention
The ICAO Annexes are the 19 technical volumes attached to the Chicago Convention that carry ICAO's Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) on everything from personnel licensing to safety management. They number from Annex 1 (Personnel Licensing) through Annex 19 (Safety Management), and national rulebooks such as the FAA's regulations and EASA's Parts are the domestic transposition of the Standards they contain.
Transport Canada Civil Aviation (TCCA)
Transport Canada Civil Aviation is the civil-aviation directorate of Transport Canada, the federal department that regulates aviation in Canada. It administers the Canadian Aviation Regulations and oversees licensing, airworthiness, and operations for Canadian aircraft and airspace.
USOAP (Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme)
USOAP is ICAO's programme for auditing whether each Member State actually operates an effective safety-oversight system. It measures a State against the eight Critical Elements of safety oversight and produces an Effective Implementation (EI) score, which in turn shapes how far that State's licenses and operator certificates are recognized abroad.
Training(5)
ICAO TRAINAIR PLUS Programme
TRAINAIR PLUS is ICAO's global network of recognized aviation training organizations that develop and share Standardized Training Packages (STPs) built to a common competency-based course-development methodology set out in ICAO Doc 9941. Membership signals that a training organization builds courses to an internationally recognized standard and can draw on the network's shared course library.
KSA Grading (Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes)
KSA grading is the legacy training-assessment model that graded pilot performance against three taxonomic categories — Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes — and which Competency-Based Training and Assessment has progressively replaced with competency- and observable-behavior-based grading.
Observable Behaviours (OBs)
Observable behaviors (OBs) are the specific, third-party-visible actions that demonstrate a pilot competency in operation — the unit at which Competency-Based Training and Assessment is actually graded.
PANS-TRG (ICAO Doc 9868, Training)
PANS-TRG is ICAO's Procedures for Air Navigation Services — Training, published as Doc 9868. It sets out how competency-based and evidence-based training and assessment are to be developed and implemented, and it is the source layer beneath the modern FAA and EASA training rules that ATOs work under, including CBTA, EBT, the MPL, and UPRT.
Threat and Error Management (TEM)
Threat and Error Management (TEM) is the safety-management framework — developed from Line Operations Safety Audit data at the University of Texas Human Factors Research Project — that describes how flight crews identify threats, prevent or trap errors, and manage undesired aircraft states in normal line operations.