CPL, Commercial Pilots License. Minimum qualification needed to be able to be paid to fly.
PIC, Pilot In Command. Flying solo, ie without an instructor.
DUAL. Flying with an instructor.
TYPE RATING - to be able to fly a particular type of aircraft, a pilot has to have a rating to be able to fly it. Unlike a car licence which enables the licence holder to drive any sort of car, a PPL holder can only fly an aircraft that they are rated on. Each rating involves a serious of flights with an instructor to get the pilot up to standard with flying that particular aircraft type.
CIRCUIT. The pattern that is flown at an airfield. This consists of four legs, Crosswind, Downwind, Base, Finals. A standard circuit is as follows. At 500 ft after takeoff turn 90 degrees and fly the Crosswind leg. At 45 degrees to the end of the runway turn another 90 degrees and now fly the Downwind leg. This is parallel to the runway, but now flying in the opposite direction to the takeoff. At 45 degrees to the other end of the runway start the descent and turn 90 degrees to fly the Base leg. All that is left is at the appropriate moment turn another 90 degrees to line up with the runway, which puts us now on Finals. Now we just descend onto the runway, and that is the circuit complete!
VFR, Visual Flight Rules - flying by looking out the window and seeing things which you might bump in to. Basically means stay out of cloud, don't fly into conditions where visibility will drop below a certain level (eg 5km).
AGL, Above Ground Level (height above). When mentioning height, this is the distance from the ground up to the object being measured.
AMSL, Above Mean Sea Level (height above). When mentioning altitude, this is the distance measured from Mean Sea Level to the object being measured. Eg, an aircraft flying at 16000 feet above a 9000 mountain is at an altitude of 16000 feet, but at a height of 7000 feet AGL.
IFR, Instrument Flight Rules - being allowed to fly into clouds and murky weather. This magical feat is performed by utilising various beacons on the ground and navigation by interpretting the information gained from the instruments in front of the pilot. It truly is magic.
SEIR, Single Engined Instrument Rating. Qualification necessary to be able to navigate single engined aircraft soley by use of the instruments. ie, not looking out the window!!.. to be able to get there on time without worrying about weather delays (to a limit). One of many qualifications required to work in an airline.
MEIR, Multi Engined Instrument Rating. Like SEIR, but with two or more engines.
BEACON - electronic device on the ground which sends out a signal to enable pilots to navigate by. These come in two flavours, NDB (none directional beacon) and VOR (VHF Omni-directional radio Range). An ADF (Automatic Direction Finder) in the aircraft points directly towards the NDB. Whereas the NDB sends out a single signal, the VOR sends out a signal which rotates around the beacon (at 1800 rpm, 30 hz). The VOR equipment in the aircraft enables the pilot to determine exactly where the aircraft is in relation to the beacon.
A VOR beacon...
DME (Distance Measuring Equipment). DME equipment in the aircraft couple with DME equipment on the ground to enable an accurate measurment of the distance between these two items.
RADIAL. Magnetic bearing from a VOR beacon. Eg, an aircraft this is due west of a VOR is said to be on the 270 radial.
HOLD - racetrack pattern in the sky which is flown to enable IFR aircraft to slot with other traffic. Kind of like being able to park yourself on a cloud until there's a gap in the traffic. This is performed overhead a beacon, or at a set distance from a beacon.
MISSED APPROACH - at a set distance from the beacon if the pilot is unable to see the runway or runway lights, then the pilot gets the aircraft to climb away to either begin the approach again in the hope that the weather will improve, or must divert to a more suitable airfield.
RADIAL. Magnetic bearing from a VOR beacon. Eg, an aircraft this is due west of a VOR is said to be on the 270 radial.
HOLD - racetrack pattern in the sky which is flown to enable IFR aircraft to slot with other traffic. Kind of like being able to park yourself on a cloud until there's a gap in the traffic. This is performed overhead a beacon, or at a set distance from a beacon.
MISSED APPROACH - at a set distance from the beacon if the pilot is unable to see the runway or runway lights, then the pilot gets the aircraft to climb away to either begin the approach again in the hope that the weather will improve, or must divert to a more suitable airfield.
