Definition
An operating mode of certain electronic flight displays and navigation systems in which a movable on-screen pointer (the cursor) is used to select waypoints, menu items, map features, or data fields for review or entry. While in cursor mode, control inputs from a knob, joystick, or trackpad move the cursor rather than scrolling pages or changing values directly.
Plain English
A setting on a cockpit display where you move a small pointer around the screen to pick something — like using a mouse on a computer. While the pointer is active, your knob or stick moves it instead of doing other things.
Context Anchor
Seen on GPS units, flight displays, navigation pages, and other cockpit screens that let the pilot select fields or enter information.
Derivation
Cursor comes from the Latin currere, meaning to run. The cursor is the small marker that runs across the screen as you move it. Knowing this makes it easier to picture: in cursor mode, the display is set up for that little runner to be moved around.
Why Pilots Care
Enables quick and accurate selection of navigation references directly from the display, reducing workload during flight planning and enroute operations.
Analogy
It is like clicking into a box on a computer form. Once the box is selected, your typing changes that box instead of the rest of the page.
Intuition Check
Cursor Mode is not a flight mode or autopilot mode. It is a screen-control mode for selecting or changing information on an electronic display.
Example Sentence 1
She activated cursor mode on the MFD to select a nearby airport from the moving map.
Example Sentence 2
In Cursor Mode, the pilot positioned the cursor over the waypoint and pressed enter to add it to the flight plan.