Plain English Meaning

Knowing how to look at an aviation map and quickly understand what it is telling you — where you are, what is around you, how high the ground is, and what airspace you are in.

Full Definition

The skill of interpreting aeronautical charts to extract navigational, terrain, airspace, and procedural information needed for safe flight. It involves recognising chart symbols, understanding scale and projection, identifying landmarks, reading elevation and obstruction data, and correlating chart features with the actual ground or instrument environment.

Context Anchor

Used during preflight planning and in flight when a uses paper or electronic to plan a , nearby airports, or keep of the ’s .