"I don't understand what you're saying when you talk"

Not going to promise this post will be super interesting, but I will promise it'll make you smarter by the end!

So when you're new to Aviation, or anything in general, there's all this new language you have to learn.

Call it Lingo, Jargon, Technical speech, all the same. And Aviation, like many fields, has A LOT of acronyms and goofy sayings and "slang" too (I forgot to mention slang).

So here's a little list I slapped together to help my siblings and others understand what I'm talking about sometimes. :)

(but also, sometimes I'm just talking to myself, not actually to ATC. no worries)

• "ATC" - Air Traffic Control. The big guy(s) in the sky, not God but basically they do rule over the airport! You talk to them while taxiing around the airport to your hangar or to the runway, and when landing and taking off and pretty much the whole time you're in their airspace. That depends on what airspace you're in, but for my airport where I fly from, the radius is about 20 miles.

• "Taxiing" - going to park your plane, exactly how it is when you go to park your car in a big parking lot. Of course we don't say "I'm taxiing my car over to the Costco entrance right now" but plane taxiing is what comes before and after the runway. The runway being the fun part, but taxiing is actually really cool too!

• "VFR" - stands for Visual Flight Rules, what you are under when you're a Private Pilot and unless you get your IFR license and can fly IFR flights. This is at least 3 sm (Statue Miles) of visibility and a "cloud ceiling" of at least 1000 AGL (Above Ground Level).

• "IFR" - Instrument Flight Rules. You can fly in cloudier and rainier weather yay means more flying!

• "Low Ceiling" - clouds are too low to fly VFR, which most pilots are, so no flying today or at least until the sun burns some of the clouds away.

• "AGL" - Above Ground Level, shown on maps and other things pilots use, also compare to

• "MSL" - Mean Sea Level

• "Pattern" - this is the rectangle shaped course you fly in the air when coming in to land at any airport. Also called "traffic pattern". Of course there's small variations like if you're flying IFR, you fly patterns very differently. But the standard you'll fly before landing will be a rectangle. Every pilot thinks we're cool but in the beginning, we're all just a bunch of squares. (ok that joke sounded better in my head).

• "I'm going to go buzz around the pattern a bit" - pilot speak for "I'm going to go practice my landings in the rectangular course around the airport, but I won't be leaving that rectangle because the weather is low ceilings or I just want to practice and not go somewhere cool even though I own my own plane."

• "log cross country time" - any flight over 50 nm can be logged as "Cross Country" time and I need that time to buildddd my time before I can pursue my IFR training!

To learn more about aviation in general, THERE'S ACTUALLY SO MANY RESOURCES.

1. cruise youtube,

2. hang around an airport,

3. follow aviation instagram accounts,

4. follow aviation blogs,

5. Call AOPA's advice phone line: I'm not sure of the actual number but it's on the back of every AOPA magazine

• I love Mariathepilot: https://mariathepilot.com/ and her IG! https://www.instagram.com/mariathepilot/

• and pilotmaria: https://pilotmaria.com/ and her IG! https://www.instagram.com/pilotmaria/

• Patrickthepilot (notice there's a theme of P names here I guess😉): https://pilotpatrick.com/

• another great resource is Global Air's website: https://blog.globalair.com/

• ....and yes, they're separate accounts but both are named Maria for the first two😂)

YouTube channels:

• https://www.youtube.com/user/MzeroAFlightTraining (great for training)

• https://www.youtube.com/user/GoldSealFlight (great for training)

• https://www.youtube.com/pilotpatrick (he has a YouTube, blog, and IG)

• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFsiqjTNOu-rgtCAmhvzEOQ (she has a YouTube, blog, IG)

• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgxXMfL_mcfZZtJHnIH8Mzw (she has a YouTube, blog, IG)

• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy-yPlq4Esf0vi-zs1O24FQ (Sarah is a friend I have on YT, she has great videos and is inspiring in how fast she's completing her training!)

• and last but not leastling, my channel😃: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8iLHYSQa8U (not only about flight training, I post my experiences/advice/life vlogs on aviation and humour videos, vlogs, skits etc!)

*when you finish the lengthy post that's mainly about annoying aviation acronyms*: