Many years ago, I had the pleasure and the challenge of writing online courses and books for one of the preeminent aviation education companies.
It was thrilling for me on one level because I had used its knowledge test materials when I was a student pilot. I used them when I added my instrument rating, my commercial certificate, and each of my instructor ratings. When I worked as a full time flight instructor, I recommended them to my students. I still do. It’s good material well presented. It works.
On another level the work was difficult due to the necessity of dealing with a wide variety of users who posed questions and lodged complaints exclusively by email.
Holding an extended conversation by email is not always the easiest or most productive way to share information. Add in the need to be specific, include references, and tactfully explain why a user might be mistaken in their view of a given topic or question and there is plenty of room for misunderstanding, hurt feelings, or actual anger on the part of the user.
Nobody likes to feel slighted. Few of us enjoy the experience when it is pointed out to us that we are wrong.
One of the complaints that caught me off guard — and it was a common complaint — was that we used too many acronyms in our educational materials.
If this perspective was expressed by a sport or private pilot student, I understood. Aviation has its own language — one that takes time, practice, and effort to absorb and become part of our own lexicon.
However, when the issue was raised by a commercial pilot applicant or a CFI enrolled in a FIRC (Flight Instructor Refresher Course) the criticism took me by surprise.
Surely someone who saw themselves as a professional in the industry would understand the reason for the common use of a jumble of letters to represent a specific term or phrase. Clearly, I was wrong. The grievance was not at all uncommon, which suggests to me at least that something is missing in our educational process.
The core of the issue, from my perspective, was the belief that we used “too many” acronyms. Aviation is awash in acronyms and abbreviations. Thankfully so. To spell out the entire word, term, or phrase the acronym or abbreviation symbolizes would be unwieldy.
Our policy was to use the full spelling of the word or words with the first use of the term, including the acronym or abbreviation. This was intended to give the user a reference to look back at should they ever become confused or fail to remember what the shortened block of letters meant.
That is a good policy as I see it.
If you are comfortable using the Internet, you might type into your web browser the following: www.faa.gov/jobs/abbreviations.
What you’ll find there is a listing of acronyms and abbreviations used by the FAA. Your screen will be filled with a vertical column of menu-style links, 26 in all. One for each letter of the alphabet. Clicking on any one of them will result in a list of abbreviations and acronyms you may encounter on your aeronautical journeys, each one decoded for clear and easy reference for the reader.
Sure, most of us know that VOR stands for Variable High Frequency Omnidirectional Range Very High Frequency Omni-Directional Range. Both terms mean the same thing, but one takes only three letters to express clearly. The other requires 40.
VORTAC, on the other hand, is just three letters longer than VOR, while it takes 10 somewhat lengthy words to spell out the same phrase in normal English. (VOR collocated with TACAN, which stands for Tactical Air Navigation).
This is true for a wide variety of terms, including the now common and in many cases required ADS-B. Written in long form the term is Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast. Truthfully, most folks can’t even spell Surveillance. It’s a tough word. Go ahead and try it without referencing my use of the term here. The attempt may be humbling.
In all honesty there are far more acronyms and abbreviations included in the official FAA listing than I can commit to memory. And that’s okay. Like you, I have the reference available to me pretty much whenever I need it.
Education isn’t about memorizing all the facts and figures you can stuff into your cranium. It is about learning how to find the information you need, when you need it, and how to reasonably apply the information you’ve gathered.
You can take that to the bank.
If you’re a student pilot who is feeling overwhelmed by this tsunami of new terminology the FAA, your educational products, and your CFI foist upon you, take heart. Every pilot flying today was once where you are now. Confused, occasionally mistaken, and more often than not feeling as if we are so far behind the learning process we will never catch up.
Have no fear. You’re making progress. Just as learning the phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, etc) takes time and repetition, so does adapting to the myriad new terms you will encounter in aviation.
If, on the other hand, you are a CFI who feels that acronyms and abbreviations are overused, you might want to reexamine your thought process.
As instructors our job is to guide our students, to encourage them, to help them adapt to the challenges before them and succeed in conquering these new tasks and areas of knowledge. So teach. Keep yourself actively engaged in learning. Push yourself a bit.
It is far easier to adapt to an existing system that is in use globally than it is to fight an uphill battle to change the terminology hundreds of thousands of others have adopted as their own language.
Yankee Oscar Uniform, Charlie Alpha November, Delta Oscar, Tango Hotel India Sierra.
CAVU y’all.
Count me among those who think we (aviators, pilots, CFIs, mechanics, A&Ps, A&Es, AMEs, IAs—all of us in aviation of whatever alphabet category) overuse acronyms and abbreviations and nonsense words—and just as often, mis-use them. Have you ever overheard an argument over whether CFII is a proper abbreviation for an instrument instructor, or whether it is more properly CFIAI? Like what the heck is a PPL—when we don’t have licenses any longer, but certificates? Or why can’t a commercial pilot charge for services unless he/she/it has passed some other test, but it’s not a check ride even if all of us call it that. And what does ATCO mean, anyway? And what the heck does METAR stand for, in actual words—and why can’t it be in English instead of undecipherable acronyms or abbreviations or hieroglyphics?
I’ve only been a “licensed” / certificated (or is it certified?) pilot for 50 years, and although I haven’t done it for years, I’m also a CFI and CFII (or is it CFIAI?), and if I’m a CFI, am I certified or certificated? I’ve always wondered what this ATOMATOFLAMES was supposed to mean, so I’m glad for that explanation, whether it’s accurate or not—but I do know what a VOR is and I can still navigate using one—if the GPS dies, or goes dark, or the WAAS half of my GPS doesn’t let me use an LTV approach, or I’m out of REIM or I just need a snack or maybe should RON. But the TAC part of VORTAC—well, I’ve never flown an F-15 or any other F-something, so I guess it doesn’t matter. But GUMPS—that one I know, and that one I still use—but the rest of them—oh my, my head is starting to hurt!
RAIM maybe instead of REIM.
I hear pilots say Alpha for A, Bravo for B……but rarely hear the phonetic for numbers. I may hear Niner for 9 but never Tree for 3, Fow Er for 4 or Tree for 3.
0 ZE RO
1 WUN
2 TOO
3 TREE
4 FOW ER
5 FIFE
6 SIX
7 SEV EN
8 AIT
9 NIN ER
I love TLA’s.
With deepest apologies for readers, I have to extend my sincere regret that I erred in the above column. VOR does not stand for Variable Frequency… as I suggested in the article. How I made that error, I’ll never know. It’s a basic term that pilots use often, and I just flat our blew it in this case. I’ll make no excuses. It was wrong. The true expanded meaning is indeed Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range. Those of you who got that right and corrected my error, I owe you.
I look forward to next week’s offering, which I trust I will type out more accurately than I did this last week.
Onward and upward!
Gee !!, I thought that you did that on purpose to stimulate some new discussion…
GA is a great GA publication !…keep up the great work on useful articles.
‘ A pilot is always learning.!!’
Agree with You, Mr. Jim H 🙂🙂
And here’s my Mea Culpa moment. Jamie’s GA News email works just fine. I made a mistake when typing the address.
For some reason I got rubbed the wrong way with this whole situation but I’ve had time to sleep on it.
Ruffled feathers are soothed and tail’s tucked.
Thank you Ben for the email exchange this afternoon. And Jamie, your articles are appreciated.
I read GA news every day so please keep up the good work.
I tried to send an email to Jamie@generalaviationnews.com
And got a delivery failure notice.
My failed email contained the following message:
The following is an email I sent GA News.
All of my comments are being moderated so I’d like to hear from you directly:
Concerning an article published on General Aviation News about acronyms in aviation:
“Something doesn’t add up with this guy. He moderated my last comment calling him out for being incorrect and not being fair in addressing folks when they questioned him on his inaccuracy.
His words: “ Few of us enjoy the experience when it is pointed out to us that we are wrong.”
I agree. However when I’m incorrect (which happens) I’m willing to stand corrected.
He hasn’t addressed the folks that have pointed out to him that he was incorrect.
And he’s the AOPA’s liaison for high school kids?
I’m not buying it. Given his reaction to a simple correction, I don’t believe he should be liaising or instructing anything.”
According to the author’s bio on GA News, he’s the AOPA’s liaison for high school students?
Given his title with AOPA, I’d like to know more about his qualifications to bear that title and why he isn’t more willing to correct his inaccuracies.
Sent from my iPhone
“ . . . when the GPS goes ‘dark’.”
What? Wait! The GPS can go dark?!
Not all of the items mentioned are acronyms. An acronym is an abbreviation that makes
a producible word. \
Examples
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is an acronym because it because a word
NNE (North North East) is an abbreviation and not an acronym because it doesn’t make a producible word.
You think Aviation is bad in this regard? I can top that! I worked for a major Washington DC consulting firm in which our clients included DoD, DoJ, and some other ‘alphabet’ Federal agencies. Those and all the other Federal agencies have their own acronyms. I had three separate sheets of them on my cork board over my desk. Bad form to confuse them in front of the client! Some insiders took pride in knowing them all and which-were-which. You could stand in the lunch line and hear more acronyms in speech than plain English. Sheesh!
It was noted in the article that first-time use requires the full wording strung out, then later in the text using the acronym. That is standard form in contracts and business writing. You just have to flip back to page-1 to recall what the stand for!
ATOMATOFLAMES
My brain trying to remember an aviation acronym:
How do I remember the acronym itself? Let’s see. I’ll imagine a tomato on fire.
Nope it’s not F,I,R,E. It’s F,L,A,M,E,S. I’ll probably just remember Tomato Flames because it’s unusual. I’ll remember One Tomato Flames, as in “A” Tomato Flames.
A single tomato.
Flaming.
Wow.
Moving on:
A-Altimeter. Got it. T-Tachometer. Got it. O-Oil temperature gauge. Got it. M-Manifold Pressure. Got it.
This is simple.
A-Altimeter. Wait. I already did that one. This A is Airspeed Indicator. There are two A’s but both are flight instruments. Altimeter and Airspeed.
Let that sink in…….OK. Got it.
A,T,O,M,A…T-Tachometer. Wait. I did that already. This T is Temperature gauge. There are two T’s but look! Both are engine-related gauges.
Got it. (Is my heart beating faster? Deep breath.)
O-Oil temperature gauge. Wait. I did that already.
Really? Are you kidding me?
This O is Oil pressure. There are two O’s but both are related to engine oil. Pressure and Temperature. Got it.
A,T,O,M,A,T,O… Does tomato have an E at the end? “Tomatoe”. Nope. That looks wrong. OK. No E.
A,T,O,M,A,T,O…F. F is for Fuel. (Out loud in a funny voice “F is for Fuel”) I wish Grover from Sesame Street was here to help. Did Grover have blue or green fur? Was Grover an animal? What was Grover? A bear?
Huh. I never thought about that before.
Wait. Focus you idiot. (Deep breath).
F-Fuel gauge. Got it.
L is next. What airplane thingy starts with L?
Maybe L is for f,L,a,p,s? That’s stupid. Oh yes, I remember now. L is for Landing Gear. I wonder why it isn’t it G, for “gear.” Wait. In the GUMPS acronym G is for Gas so that would be confusing.
Makes sense.
But doesn’t U stand for for landing gear in GUMPS? Gas, Undercarriage, Mixture, Prop, Seatbelts
Yes. That’s right. Undercarriage equals Landing Gear.
But in TOMATOFLAMES “L” stands for “Landing Gear Position Lights.”
Wow. I guess I’ll just somehow remember that. I’m sweaty.
What’s next…
A.
You have got to be kidding me! Really! Come on!
Calm down. Don’t panic. The first two A’s are Altimeter, and Airspeed. Remember that both are flight instruments. Good. Take a breath.
What does this A stand for?
Anti-collision Lights.
Just shoot me now. Get it over with.
Lot’s of people know this stuff. It can’t possibly be as hard as you’re making it. You have a Master’s degree for goodness sake! Buckle down!
A,T,O,M,A,T,O,F,L,A…M
Ha! Got you. I know that M is not for Manifold pressure because we already did that! Eat it acronym!
This M is for Magnetic Compass. About as different from Manifold Pressure as you can get. My brain hurts. It’s foggy. My brain feels like it’s wearing foggles. Whatever happened to my foggles? You know, it doesn’t really matter if foggles get scratched. Funny. Never thought of that before either.
FOCUS! You’re on the letter “M!”
No sweat. I’ll just remember that the other doubled letters have similarities, but “M” is different. Got it.
E-ELT. Got it.
S- Safety belts. YES! It’s the same as GUMPS! Woo Hoo!
Made it. Whew. I should take a break. Walk around a bit. I can’t even remember what the ATOMATOFLAMES list is for. I don’t care any more.
Maybe I can get my wife to just drill me on this over and over. I sure hope there aren’t too many acronyms I need to know.
😉
Isn’t “Q” pronounced “Kay-beck?”
Close, it is KEH – BECK, are you Okay with that?
“On March 23, 1839, the initials “O.K.” are first published in The Boston Morning Post. Meant as an abbreviation for “oll korrect,” a popular slang misspelling of “all correct” at the time, OK steadily made its way into the everyday speech of Americans.”
OK was also popularized in the 1840 reelection campaign of President Martin Van Buren who was from Kinderhook, NY. He had the nickname of Old Kinderhook which supposedly became shortened to OK by his supporters (Andrew Jackson, the preceding president, was known as ‘Old Hickory’). Old Kinderhook, NY in Google Maps will produce a list of business references in the Kinderhook, NY area.
“Sure, most of us know that VOR stands for Variable High Frequency Omnidirectional Range.”
Nope.
Wikipedia, for heaven’s sake: “Very high frequency omnirange station (VOR)”
Wikipedia is not an FAA publication. Nor is it a branch of the FCC.
That is all.
And lots and lots of times Wikipedia says something that aren’t exactly right.
Jamie,
I Agree that Wikipedia is not always correct, nor is it part of the FAA.
So, I went to the FAA website to see what they called it. the FAA says VOR is “Very High Frequency Omni-Direcrional Range!”
www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ato/service_units/techops/navservices/gbng/vor
“Sure, most of us know that VOR stands for Variable High Frequency Omnidirectional Range.”
Nope.
Wikipedia, for heaven’s sake: “Very high frequency omnirange station (VOR)”
Ah, Snowflakes. If you don’t like the work to gain the prestigious title, it’s time to consider another line of work or hobby.
Uh, Variable High Frequency? From the linked FAA reference (and pretty much my whole memory since forever), VOR = Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range
Yes, VHF, as in the frequency range, 108.0 to 117.95 MHz…
As in between the frequencies of HF and UHF.
and, still a useful navigation aid, when the GPS goes ‘dark’.
And then we will wish there are more than 300 (not enough IMO – pronounced EYE-MOE).