Pilot and Aeronautical Terms
Notices to Airmen (NOTAMs):
NOTAMs, short for Notices to Airmen, are time-sensitive aeronautical notifications. They pertain to information that is either of a temporary nature or not known in advance to be included in aeronautical charts or other operational publications. This information is promptly distributed through the National Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) System. NOTAMs encompass current notices critical to flight safety, along with additional data that affects other operational publications. Various circumstances may lead to the issuance of NOTAMs, including:
Hazards like air shows, parachute jumps, kite flying, and rocket launches
Flights involving prominent individuals such as heads of state, president
Runway closures
Non-operational radio navigational aids
Military exercises leading to airspace restrictions
Lights on tall structures not functioning
Temporary installation of obstacles near airfields
Movement of bird flocks through airspace (referred to as a BIRDTAM)
Aircraft Classifications and Ultralight Vehicles:
The FAA employs diverse categorizations for machines operated or flown in the air. The broadest grouping is referred to as aircraft. Another general term utilized by the FAA is ultralight vehicle. As the name implies, powered ultralight vehicles must have an empty weight of less than 254 pounds, while unpowered ones should weigh less than 155 pounds. The regulations governing ultralight vehicles differ significantly from those applying to aircraft. The FAA distinguishes aircraft based on their characteristics and physical attributes. Essential groupings encompass:
NOTAMs, short for Notices to Airmen, are time-sensitive aeronautical notifications. They pertain to information that is either of a temporary nature or not known in advance to be included in aeronautical charts or other operational publications. This information is promptly distributed through the National Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) System. NOTAMs encompass current notices critical to flight safety, along with additional data that affects other operational publications. Various circumstances may lead to the issuance of NOTAMs, including:
Hazards like air shows, parachute jumps, kite flying, and rocket launches
Flights involving prominent individuals such as heads of state, president
Runway closures
Non-operational radio navigational aids
Military exercises leading to airspace restrictions
Lights on tall structures not functioning
Temporary installation of obstacles near airfields
Movement of bird flocks through airspace (referred to as a BIRDTAM)
Aircraft Classifications and Ultralight Vehicles:
The FAA employs diverse categorizations for machines operated or flown in the air. The broadest grouping is referred to as aircraft. Another general term utilized by the FAA is ultralight vehicle. As the name implies, powered ultralight vehicles must have an empty weight of less than 254 pounds, while unpowered ones should weigh less than 155 pounds. The regulations governing ultralight vehicles differ significantly from those applying to aircraft. The FAA distinguishes aircraft based on their characteristics and physical attributes. Essential groupings encompass:
- Airplane: A heavier-than-air aircraft with engine-driven fixed wings, supported in flight by the dynamic reaction of the air against its wings.
- Glider: A heavier-than-air aircraft supported in flight by the dynamic reaction of the air against its lifting surfaces, whose free flight is not primarily dependent on an engine.
- Lighter-than-air aircraft: An aircraft that ascends and stays aloft by employing gas contained within it, which weighs less than the displaced air.
- Airship: An engine-driven lighter-than-air aircraft capable of being steered.
- Balloon: A lighter-than-air aircraft that lacks an engine and maintains flight through either gas buoyancy or an airborne heater.
- Powered-lift: A heavier-than-air aircraft capable of vertical takeoff, vertical landing, and low-speed flight, mainly relying on engine-driven lift mechanisms or thrust for lift during these flight phases, and on non-rotating airfoils for lift in horizontal flight.
- Powered parachute: A powered aircraft featuring a flexible or semi-rigid wing attached to a fuselage in a manner where the wing is not in flight position until the aircraft is in motion. The fuselage contains the aircraft engine, seating for occupants, and is connected to the landing gear.
- Rocket: An aircraft propelled by expelled expanding gases generated from self-contained propellants, not relying on the intake of external substances. This category includes any part that detaches during operation.
- Rotorcraft: A heavier-than-air aircraft primarily reliant on the lift produced by one or more rotors.
- Gyroplane: A rotorcraft whose rotors are not engine-driven, except for initial starting, and rotate due to the action of the air when the rotorcraft is in motion. Its means of propulsion, usually conventional propellers, is independent of the rotor system.
- Helicopter: A rotorcraft that primarily relies on its engine-driven rotors for horizontal movement.