Definition
An FAA online tool that displays a graphical view of Obstacle Departure Procedures (ODPs) and Standard Instrument Departures (SIDs) so pilots can see the published departure routing, climb requirements, and obstacle considerations in chart form.
Plain English
A web tool that shows you a picture of how to fly out of an airport on instruments, including the route and any climb rules you need to meet.
Context Anchor
Seen in FAA traffic flow management and air traffic control discussions, especially when airport departure demand and delays are being monitored.
Derivation
Departure comes from older French and Latin roots meaning to go away or separate. In aviation, it means the part of a flight where an aircraft leaves an airport. Viewer simply means a tool used to look at information, so Departure Viewer means a tool for viewing departure information.
Why Pilots Care
Ensures the pilot selects and understands the correct departure path, avoiding terrain, obstacles, and airspace conflicts immediately after liftoff.
Intuition Check
Do not read Departure Viewer as a cockpit screen for the pilot to watch the takeoff. In this FAA context, it is a traffic management tool used to monitor flights leaving airports.
Example Sentence 1
Before her IFR flight out of a mountain airport, she opened the Departure Viewer to study the climb gradient required by the obstacle departure procedure.
Example Sentence 2
Using the departure viewer, she confirmed the initial altitude restriction and the first waypoint after takeoff.