Definition
A government publication issued by the FAA that contains the official charts and supporting information for instrument approach procedures, standard instrument departures (SIDs), standard terminal arrivals (STARs), and airport diagrams used in the United States. It is published in regional volumes on a 56-day revision cycle and is the authoritative source for the procedure charts pilots use during instrument operations.
Plain English
It is the FAA's official book of instrument approach charts, departure charts, arrival charts, and airport diagrams. When a pilot needs the chart for an instrument approach into an airport, this is where it comes from.
Context Anchor
Seen when looking up instrument approach charts, radar approach information, departure procedures, arrival procedures, and airport diagrams for a specific airport.
Derivation
Terminal here refers to the area near an airport where arrivals, approaches, and departures happen, as opposed to the en route portion of a flight. Procedures are the published step-by-step routings flown in that area. So Terminal Procedures Publication is literally the book of procedures used in the terminal environment.
Why Pilots Care
Supplies the current, legally approved charts needed to conduct safe instrument approaches and departures.
Intuition Check
Do not read FAA TPP as a type of approach. It is the FAA publication set that contains the procedure charts and related pages.
Example Sentence 1
Before the flight, she pulled up the ILS approach chart for runway 27 from the FAA TPP.
Example Sentence 2
Changes to procedures in the FAA TPP are issued on a regular schedule so pilots always use current information.