Definition
A former FAA-funded service that allowed pilots to obtain official preflight weather briefings and file flight plans directly online, without going through a Flight Service Station specialist. DUAT (and its later version, DUATS) was discontinued in 2018; pilots now use FAA-approved providers such as Leidos Flight Service or third-party platforms like ForeFlight for the same functions.
Plain English
An old online system pilots used to look up weather and file flight plans themselves, instead of calling a briefer. It has been retired and replaced by newer online services.
Context Anchor
Seen in older FAA handbook material, acronym lists, and discussions of preflight weather briefing and flight-plan filing.
Derivation
The name describes the function: a 'direct user access terminal' meant the pilot (the user) could access flight planning information directly through a computer terminal, rather than relaying through a Flight Service briefer.
Why Pilots Care
It allows pilots to retrieve current, official preflight information quickly without calling Flight Service.
Intuition Check
Do not read “terminal” here as an airport passenger building. In this term, it means a computer access point or system for getting flight information.
Example Sentence 1
Older textbooks tell pilots to file their flight plan through DUAT, but today that same task is done through Leidos Flight Service.
Example Sentence 2
Flight plans are often filed through DUAT from a home computer.