Aviation Glossary

At Dauntless, our editorial staff maintains the web's largest unified glossary of aviation terms. This glossary is built from a combination of official, quasi-official, and proprietary sources (including original material that we develop oursselves). Uniquely, we often provide multiple definitions of a given term so that you can find that which best applies to you. In order to maximize your learning efficiency, this glossary (and similar ones for our international users) is incresingly fully integrated into our aviation learning apps, including our FAA written test prep and FAA practical test prep software and apps. If you like this glossary, you'll love them with their polished learning environments and world's best and clearest content (please do give them a try.).

Scan

A procedure used by the pilot to visually identify all resources of information in flight.

source: FAA Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3A)

The motion of an electronic beam through space searching for a target. Scanning is produced by the motion of the antenna or by lobe switching.

source: FAA Flight Navigator's Handbook (FAA-H-8083-18)

The fist fundamental skill of instrument flight, also known as “cross-check;” the continuous and logical observation of instruments for attitude and performance information.

source: FAA Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (FAA-H-8083-25A)

A procedure used by the pilot to visually identify all resources of information in flight.

source: FAA Weight Shift Control Handbook (FAA-H-8083-5)

(as a verb) to look systematically over a given area: the First Officer scanned the instruments and control panels; the crew scanned the sky for any traffic

source: ICAO English Pro Aviation Glossary

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Disclaimer: While this glossary in most cases is likely to be highly accurate and useful, sometimes, for any number of editorial, transcription, technical, and other reasons, it might not be. Additionally, as somtimes you may have found yourself brought to this page through an automated term matching system, you may find definitions here that do not match the cotext or application in which you saw the original term. Please use your good judgement when using this resource.