Definition
Cockpit warning indicators—typically illuminated panels, lights, or messages on a display—that alert the pilot to a specific condition, such as an impending stall, low fuel, or a system fault. In the context of stalls, an annunciator is the visual portion of the stall warning system that activates before the wing reaches the critical angle of attack.
Plain English
Lights or on-screen messages in the cockpit that tell the pilot when something needs attention. For stalls, it’s the warning light that comes on before the wing stops flying.
Context Anchor
In stall training, a pilot may see or hear a stall warning annunciator as the airplane gets close to a stall.
Derivation
From the Latin annuntiare, meaning ‘to announce.’ An annunciator literally announces a condition to the pilot—useful to remember because its job is to get the pilot’s attention, not to fix the problem.
Why Pilots Care
They deliver immediate alerts to critical situations such as stall warnings, allowing the pilot to take corrective action before a problem worsens.
Intuition Check
An annunciator is not a person making a radio announcement. In an airplane, it is a light, message, or alert that announces a condition in the aircraft.
Example Sentence 1
As airspeed decayed during the power-off stall demonstration, the stall annunciator illuminated, prompting the pilot to lower the nose.
Example Sentence 2
During the preflight, the pilot verified that all annunciators lit up correctly when the test switch was pressed.