Abbreviations Flashcards
ICAO
International Civil aviation opertations (agency of the UN)
CARs (Canadian Aviation Regulations) Name 3 sectors
Included (rarely changing). Referenced (Updated as procedures change). External (Special documents, complement regulations)
FIR ( Flight information regions, name all 7)
Vancouver, edmonton, winnipeg, toronto, montreal, moncton, gander
CDA (canadian domestic airspace, break down regions)
Northern(NDA): Artic Control area (ACA) NDA above 27000’. Northern control area. (NCA) NDA above 23000’.
Southern Domestic Area (SDA) Southern control Area above 18000’
Low level below 18000’
Atmospheric composition
78 percent N
21 percent 02
1 percent carbon dioxide, water, other gasses.
3 Characteristics of our atmosphere
Mobility
Compression
Expansion
Define characteristics of a standard atmosphere for aviation
Pressure: 1013,25 hPA
Temp: 15 celsius
Air is unsaturated
Lapse rate:1.98 celsius/1000’
Attack angles for maximum lift/stall
Lift increases as attack angle approaches 15 degrees then lessens and when attack angle is 20 degrees or greater lift stalls because forces necessary to bend the air area greater than air viscosity and it seperates from the wing.
3 axes of aircraft rotation
lateral: Pitch, nose moves up or down, elevators
Longitudinal: Roll, wing tips go up or down, ailerons
Vertical: Yaw, mose moves left or right, rudder
Describe the different Ice types and their characteristics
Clear and glassy, ) to -10 degress.
Rime opaque and granular -15 to -20 degrees
Hoarfrost, thin crystalline ice
Mixed: combines clear and rime ice.
Ice accumulation can be trace, light, moderate or severe. (1/4”/ hour, 1/4” to 1”/hour, 1” to 3”/ hour, and Greater than 3”/ hour respectively)
Jet stream characteristics
Fast flowing stream of air near the tropopause.
60 knots to 250 knots
Few thousand feet thick, many miles wide. Associated with fronts
Cloud height definitions
Low: up to 6500’
Mid: 6500-19000’
High: above 20000’
NAvigation theory definition
Navigation is safe, law abiding and on course
Define variation and Deviation (hint: directionality)
Variation: Difference between true north and magnetic north
Deviation: difference between magnetic north and compass north
Breakdown degrees of latitude
60 nautical miles in one degree, 60 minutes in a degree, 60 seconds in a minute
Longitude measured in degrees eaast or west of prime meridian (0-180)
NAme the time zones in canada/ difference from UTC
Newfoundland standard/ 3.5
Atlantic/4
Eastern/5
Central/6
Mountain/7
Pacific/8
1 hor difference for daylight savings time
Define bearing, heading, track and drift
Bearing is direction from a point measure from 0-360 degrees. Heading is the direction the nose of the aircraft is pointing, track is how the airplane is moving relative to the ground and drift is the difference between heading and track.
Radio frequency uses and bands for civilian aviation?
Lf/MF: commercial broadcasting
HF: long range communications
VHF: ATC for air to ground (VOR frequencies)
UHF: Military for air to ground (TACAN Frequencies)
VHF: 118 to 136 mHz in 0.025 mHz intervals for 720 discreet channels
NDB
Non direction beacon, denote a specific locations and identify themselves in morse code
VOR
Very high frequency omnidirectional range
Broadcast 360 signals for every degree around them
DME
Distance measuring equipment
Ground bases station that measure distacne to plane, ground speed and time to arrival
TACAN
Military VOR us UFH frequencies
ILS
Instrument landing system. Composed of Localizer for lateral guidance to runway, Glide path transmitter for guidance to appropriate approach angle and Final approach fix (FAF) denoting start of landing area.
GNSS
Global navigation satellite system.
Guides SIDs (Standard instrument dpeartures) and STARs (Standard terminal arrivals)
GNSS is a boon to takeoff and landing efficiency.
4 Reasons for ATC standard Phraseology
Uniformity, Understanding, Brevity and Clarity
3 Steps of situational awareness
Perception, comprehension and projection
Perception is about getting the right information at the right time, comprehension is synthesizing disjointed information and projection is successful extrapolation of comprehended information.
4 Legs of a circuit
Downwind, base, final approach and crosswind.
Circuits are almost always composed of all left hand turns and aircraft never join on the crosswind leg.
Clearance limit
POint to which an aircraft has clearance
Define Night
End of evening civil twilight to morning civil twilight
AAS + RAAS (hint: FSS provides these)
Aerodrome advisory services and remote aerodrome advisory services
FDE
Flight Data Entry (Strip)
Roles of Clearance delivery controller
Issue IFR clearances, create FDE, provide IFR and VFR flights with airport info
Roles of ground controller
Handle of all ground traffic, provide taxi authorizations and coordinate with tower controllers
Roles of tower controller
Take off and landing clearances, aircraft seperation, coordinate with ground controller and ACC enroute controller
Can be split into depature/arrival controller at busy sites
Ground Visibility
Visibility reported by an observer on the ground
Flight Visibility
Visibility reported by someone in the air
Minimum conditions
Flight vis of 3 miles, visual reference to the surface. 500 vertical feet to a cloud or 1 horizontal mile. ground vis of 3 miles and minimun ceiling of 500 feet
Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC)
Forces pilots to fly IFR less than 1 mile visibility.
Special VFR (SVF)
Condition betwem IMC and abd VFR flight and ground vis both 1 mile. Aircraft retains reference to the surface and is clear of Clouds
VFR Over the Top ( VFR OTT)
Ground vis is obscured by cloud cover
1000 vertical feet to any cloud, cloud layers 5000 feet apart, flight vis is 5 miles
5 mile ground vis and no weather 1 hour before til 2 hours after.
Right of Way
On the right has the right
Head on appraoch both move right
Overtaking planes alter course to the right
Landing aircraft have right of way, lower before higher
Pilot with right of way is responsible for avoiding collison
Minimum flight altitudes in built up areas
Planes 1000’ above an obstacle within 2000’
Balloon 500’ within 500’
Choppers 100’ within 500’
exceptions for life saving actions
What defines acrobatic flights
bank angle over 60 degrees
CDA airspace class A (altitude)
Above 18000’ IFR space
Airspace class b (Below)
12500’ to 18000’ IFR and CVFR
Airspace class C (Clearance)
Control zones and terminal control zones, clearance required (becomes class e if aerodrome is not in operation)
Airspace class d (dialogue)
Control zones and terminal control zones but clearance is not required to enter, nbut 2 way coms with ATC is necessary. BEcomes class e in off hours
Class E (easy)
All non a,b,c or d areas. ATC services provided only for IFR flights. (ex a small iarport closes for the night, will be e until it reopens.)
Class F (fancy)
Special use airspace, restricted or military zones, flight areas defined by special activities taking place
Flight zone g (general)
all uncontrolled airspace. NO ATC service but FSS is available. (ex fl200 in NDA)
VFR conditions for flight in zone b
NEed radio navigation equipment, ability to report to a point specified by ATS and ability to fly in VMC
Class F specifications
Advisory: Hazardous Activities (training or parachuting)
Restricted: More dangerous, serious risk activities (Military or live fire training)
DAnger dangerous activities (mid air refueling)
IFR cleared to enter if it has military approval, altitude reservation or the craft is cleared for visual approach.
Class F Region coding
101-199 BC
201-299 AB
301-399 SK
401-499 MB
501-599 ON
601-699 QC
701-799 Atlantic Canada
801-899 Yukon
901-999 NWT and Nunavut
Define Airways
Highways in the sky, defined routes in controlled airspace
Define Routes
Dirt roads in the sky, point to point in uncontrolled airspace
Low LEvel airway definition and sign
2200’ agl to 18000’ feet Noted with a V, called Victor airways
Define T routes
Low level RNAV route that requires GNSS 10 miles either side of centerline, no splay (LF/mf or uhf/vhf airways have splay due to signal innacuracy over distance)
HIgh level Airway sign
Called Jets or J
Define Q routes
High level fixed RNAV routes (T routes are low level equivalent)
Why do Terminal Control Area exist?
To privde extra IFR control at busy airports
Define Terminal Control Zone Boundaries
Inner Circle (From 1200’ above ground level in a 12 mile radius)
Intermediate circle (fomr 2200’ above ground level in a 35 mile radius)
Outer limit (from 9500’ above ground level in a 45 mile radius)
Define Control Area Extension (CAE)
For busy areas where seperation is inssuficient, from 2200’ to 18000’
Define Transition areas in the TCA
Additional airspace for containment of IFR. 700’ to base of overlying controlled airspace, usually in a 15 mile radius
Define MOCA
Minimum Object Clearance ALtitude (between specific fixes)
Define MEA
Minimum en route altitude. Allows signal clearance from navaid between points and provides terrain clearance
Define MSA
Minumum sector altitude. provides 1000’ clearance to all objects in a 25 mile radius about a certain point
Safe altitude 100nm
1000’ clearance within 100nm of an aerodrome
Area Minimum altitude
1000’ clearance in specified area. For use in IMC (2000’ in mountainous regions.)
Transition Altitude
Height above which flights would transition into flight levels (18000’)
Minimum recption altitude (MRA)
Lowest altitude to maintain acceptable UHF/VHF signal will be received
VTAs (Visual informational aids)
VFR Terminal area charts. Info for pilots operating in busy terminals
VNCs (Visual information)
VFR navigational charts. info for enroute portion of vfr flight
World Aeronautical charts
infor for extended cross country flights at lower altitudes, less detailed than VNCs
CAP
Canada Air Pilot. IFR flight info, SIDs and STARs, ground ops infor, noise abatement
Terminal charts
IFR charts for busy airport areas
Lo
Low altitude IFR charts ,airway route data, minimum altitudes, distances airport and radio info.
Hi
Upper level IFR Chart ( above 18000’) All radio navigation and airway infor, less detailed than lows for surface features
What colour do Lf/MF and VHF/UHF frequencies appear on charts in?
Green and Black respectively
ATIS
Automatic Trminal information service. Recorded message with terminal information.
Define standard and setting altimeter regions
Standard is above 18000’ and setting is below 18000’. Setting uses 29.91 mmHg and setting uses nearest station pressure. When transitioning into standard region pilot will wait until in the standard region and set altimeter to standard. When transitioning into setting region the pilot will abtain the appropriate altimeter pressure and set the altimeter BEFORE entering the setting region.
When does a flight end?
When all persons have disembarked
Name the 3 phases of departure
Preflight( standing, pushback, taxi), takeoff and initial climb (takeoff to 1000’ above runway of initial power reduction, whichever comes first)
Define the enroute section of an IFR flight
Completion of initial climb to the controlled descent to the initial approach fix (IAF)
Define landing flare
When the nose of the aircraft is raised to begin the landing deceleration.
Name the 3 phases of arrival
Approach (from IAF to beginning of landing flare), landing( from landing lfare til aircraft exits the runway or comes to a complete stop on the runway), postflight (Taxi, standing)
Define top of Descent
the point at which the pilot begins an idle descent from cruise altitude to final approach to minimize fuel usage, pollution and noise.
What are the standard emergency frequencies
121.5 and 243 Mhz
What is the GEneral Broadcast frequency
126.7 mHz. Pilots broadcast their intentions in uncontrolled airspace during the enroute portion of a VFR flight.
What is the difference between the Mandatory frequency and the Aerodrome traffic frequency?
At small aerodromes the Mandatory frequency is monitored by FSS that pilots must be in contact with when operated around that aerodrome (landing and taking off). The aerodrome traffic frequency serves the same purpose at uncontrolled aerodromes. It is unmonitored but pilots broadcast their intentions so there is an overall picture of traffic at an aerodrome.
FISE
Flight information services en route. This frequency is monitored by FSS to create flight plans and give information to pilots at small AERODROMES.
CU,TCU, CB, ACC
Cloud types, Cumulus, Towering cumulus, cumulonimbus and altocumulus castellanus
Buys Ballot Law
Based on coriolis this law states that if the wind is at your back in the northern hemisphere, low pressure will be to your left.
Veering wind
Wind changes in a clockwise direction
Backing wind
Wind changes in a counter clockwise direction
Describe wind arrows on meterological charts
Wind is shown in the direction it is coming from. The barbs on the arrow represent speed. A full bard is 10 knots and a half is 5.
Name the 5 lifting agents (Of air in the atmosphere)
Convection, orographic lift, mechanical turbulence, convergence and frontal lift.
Name the 4 air masses typically found in canada
Maritime Artic, Maritime Polar, MAritime Tropical and Continental arctic (typical winter airmass for much of Canada)
Describe Polar Front Theory
This theory states teh world is covered by two air masses, the polar airmass and the tropical, equatorial airmass and that they are divded by the polar front.
How does the dew point change with frontal passage?
Dew point increases with warm front passage and decreases with cold frontal passage (cold air is dry)
Describe pressure changes with frontal passage
Pressure falls as a warm front approaches, will be lower in the area between fronts and then will rise after cold frontal passage.
Define wind shear
Wind shear is the difference between speed and direction of wind vectors
Roughly what percentage of thunderstorms end up being deemed severe
10 percent
What stage of thunderstorms does all severe weather happen during?
The mature phase
What are gneral updrafts and down drafts in severe thunderstorms?
6000’ per second updrafts and 2000’ per second downdrafts
What are the 2 types (and subtypes) of Thunderstorms
Air mass storms (convective storms, advective storms, Orographic storms)
Frontal Storms (Can be warm or cold, cold are more severe)
Name the 4 types of lightning
In cloud, cloud to ground, cloud to cloud and distant
Lightning gnerally happens in plus/minus 8 degrees
What type of clouds are indicators of possible tornado formation?
Mammatus clouds
True or False, LArge commercial airliners can handle flying through thunderstorms?
False, all aircraft shold avoid thunderstorms
Define St Elmos fire and its relevance to flight
It is a fan shaped lightning burst in the sky that indicates the presence of thunderstorms
Define turbulence
The irregular motion of air resulting in the eddies or vertical currents
Name the 4 types of turbulence
Convective, Mechanical, Wind shear, Wake turbulence
Name the 2 categories (and their subcategories of turbulence)
Friction Turbulence (Mechanical, shear, frontal)
Thermal Turbulence (Convective or advective (cold air))
Describe the three levels of turbulence
light: moemtary, slight movement
Moderate: objects may be dislodged but control of aircraft remains
Severe: Large and abrubt changes in attitude and altitude, control may be lost. unsecured objects will be tossed about.
State the differnce between macro and microbursts
Macro is over 4km diameter and micro is under 4km diameter. Usually micro last longer than macro.
Waht is virga and what could it signal?
Virga is rain that evaporates before it hits the ground. It is important because it could signal a downburst area. The cooling of air through evaporation could lead to rapid sinking of air. Downbursts can be 6000’/minute.
Name the 2 types of shear
Speed shear and directional shear
CAT
Clear Air turbulence, violent high level wind shear found around jet streams.
LLWS
low level wind shear. Very hazardous because planes are closer to the ground.
Define Chop (vs Turbulence)
Chop is less severe, slight rapid bumps, think driving on a bumpy rouad. No noticeable changes in attitude or altitude.
What must pilots report when encountering turbulence?
Position, Time, Altitude, Aircraft Type, Turbulence Type/Intensity (Same features as reporting Icing)
Why are high performance aircraft more prone to icing issues?
They have thinner wing profiles
What is clear ice composed of?
Supercooled water droplets
Waht are the conditions for icing to occur?
The plane must be flying through visible water and either teh water or the surface of the plane must be at freezing temps
Why are ice crystals not an icing danger?
They do not adhere to aircraft
What cloud type has the most icing potential in winter?
Stratocumulus
