FAA Glossaries

Contents

This app is a collection of Glossaries found in FAA publications for pilots. It includes words, terms, and acronyms from seven FAA books: Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, Airplane Flying Handbook, Instrument Flying Handbook, Instrument Procedures Handbook, Aircraft Weight and Balance Handbook, Aviation Instructor’s Handbook, and Aviation Weather. It also includes the acronyms from the AIM, the complete Pilot/Controller Glossary, ATC Glossary, and definitions from the FARs—TITLE 14--Aeronautics and Space.

Finding Words and Acronyms

To find a word, click on the logo or the Lookup button. Then pick either Words and Terms or Acronyms and scroll down the list until you find what you are looking for. If you want to look up a term from a specific FAA source, choose the source and then scroll through the words.

All of the words, terms, and acronyms are included so there are many duplicates. The only change to the entries was to make the capitalization consistent, correct a few spelling errors, and expand some of the definitions. e.g. If the entry said “See xxx.” The definition for “xxx” was substituted. The app doesn’t handle subscripts well so V speeds are in lower case, e.g. V_S0 is shown as Vso, V_NE is shown as Vne.

Categories

The Category button lets you browse by category: Private, Instrument, Advanced, Weather, Aircraft, Human Factors, Non-Airplane, and CFI. Duplicates and irrelevant terms were removed from this section.

There are many terms that belong to several categories. An example would be Area navigation (RNAV). It’s important for Private Pilots and Instrument Pilots. When it occurs in a document aimed at all airmen, like the FARs or Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge it is classified as a Private Pilot term. When it occurs in the Instrument Flying Handbook it is classified as an Instrument Pilot term.

Most weather terms are grouped in the weather category but some, like Aneroid barometer or Automatic terminal information service (ATIS), are included in the Private or Instrument Pilot category.

Instruments found in the panel are categorized as Private or Instrument pilot—even though they are part of an airplane.

If a term is in the Airplane Flying Handbook it is generally included in the Aircraft category, even if it is something like Altimeter or Angle Of Attack that would normally be a Private Pilot term.

Advanced has multi-engine, Inertial Navigation System components, Flight Management System components, Turbine Engines, etc. that aren’t applicable to most Private Pilots.

There are many duplicate words, but only one example is included in each category.

Quiz Game

Playing the game

Tap the Quiz button to start. A random term is displayed at the top of the screen. Think of the definition for the term, then tap below the term to see the definition. If you knew it, tap the check. If not tap the x. Just tap and swipe if you don’t want to keep score.

Preferences

Tap the Quiz Prefs button to quiz yourself on specific Categories. Choose either All, Words and Terms, or Acronyms. Click Done to return to the menu screen.

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