Definition
The collection of computer-based systems in a modern cockpit that perform navigation, flight path management, and aircraft control tasks under pilot supervision. This includes the autopilot, flight director, flight management system (FMS), autothrottle, and the navigation databases that feed them.
Plain English
The cockpit computers and systems that help fly and navigate the aircraft for the pilot. The pilot sets them up, monitors them, and tells them what to do — but the systems handle much of the moment-to-moment work.
Context Anchor
Seen in instrument flying when a pilot loads a route or procedure from the onboard navigation database and uses the aircraft’s displays, guidance, or autopilot to fly it.
Derivation
From 'flightdeck' (the cockpit area where pilots fly the aircraft) and 'automation' (from Latin 'automatus' — self-acting). Together: the self-acting systems on the flightdeck. The word origin matters because automation is not autonomy — the systems act on their own only within the limits the pilot has set.
Why Pilots Care
Database errors or omissions can cause the automation to command incorrect routes or altitudes, requiring pilots to maintain active monitoring rather than full reliance.
Intuition Check
Do not read “automation” as “the airplane understands the whole flight.” Here it means the aircraft’s systems follow selected instructions and stored data, so the pilot must check that both are correct.
Example Sentence 1
Before departure, the crew programmed the route into the FMS and verified each waypoint, knowing flightdeck automation will follow exactly what is loaded.
Example Sentence 2
Flight deck automation reduced workload on the long RNAV arrival until a database currency alert appeared.