Plain English Meaning

Cockpit equipment that can navigate directly to any point on the map by its coordinates, instead of only flying to or from ground stations like VORs.

Full Definition

Avionics units capable of area navigation (RNAV), meaning they can compute the aircraft's position and guide it directly between any two points in space, rather than only along signals radiating from ground-based navigation stations. In the context of VFR waypoints, these are the receivers — typically GPS or multi-sensor RNAV units — that can store and navigate to waypoints defined purely by latitude and longitude.

Context Anchor

Seen when using VFR waypoints, GPS , and planning in the cockpit.