The Hungry Pilot

Here you can find a collection of the acronyms and abbreviations I’m using in my posts. I’ll try to give a brief explanation of the terms as well, and I might link to some website or Wikipedia article where you can find further details. This one is a work in progress, things will be added here as more articles are published.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

• AME: Aviation medical examiner (or aeromedical examiner) – Aviation doctor who examines pilots for their fitness to fly
• ATPL: Airline Transport Pilot License – The highest level pilot license one can hold. It is needed to act as a commander of aircraft engaged in commercial air transport
• Ab-initio (or cadet) scheme: A program which is designed to train someone to a level at which they can start flying in a commercial operation. Such a program is often run by or in cooperation with an airline, and as a graduate you often have a guaranteed cockpit job after finishing training

C

• CAA: Civil Aviation Authority – An authority or governmental organization which oversees civil aviation
• CPL: Commercial Pilot License – The license one needs to fly as a pilot in commercial air transport

E

• EASA: European Union Aviation Safety Agency – The joint European aviation authority. It creates and amends our aviation regulations, a lot of it based on ICAO rules and recommendations. The European Commission turns these into EU laws, which is adopted into national legislation by the member countries

F

• FAA: Federal Aviation Administration – The CAA of the USA
• fATPL: frozen ATPL or frozen Airline Transport Pilot License – A CPL license stating that the holder has passed all ATPL theory exams. Will be “unfrozen” by satisfying the EASA flight hour requirements for ATPL licenses

I

• ICAO: International Civil Aviation Organisation – An organisation of the United Nations which develops and coordinates procedures, standards and techniques for international air navigation

L

• LPC: License proficiency check – A check flight to revalidate (extend) one or more ratings in your pilot license, which is usually done once per year

M

• MPL (Multi-crew Pilot License): First of all, this one exists only in Europe (under EASA). The idea is to enable a pilot to operate as a copilot in an airliner (a multi-engine, multi-pilot, turbine-powered aircraft), similar to the frozen ATPL. The main difference is that during MPL training you will have to clock at least 240 flight hours, but the vast majority of those will be flown in a simulator

P

• PPL: Private Pilot License – Your first pilot license, which will allow you to fly for fun and to gain flight experience on your way to becoming a pro

R

• Ready entry (RE): Someone who has completed flight training and holds all the papers to be hired by a commercial aircraft operator. They typically train in a school not affiliated with an airline, thus bearing all the risk