Definition
A secondary menu that appears alongside a primary menu item when that item is selected, displaying additional options or details related to it. In the context of online special use airspace tools, a fly-out menu typically expands from a list entry to show specific information such as airspace status, schedule, or controlling agency.
Plain English
A small extra menu that pops out to the side when you click or hover on something, showing more choices or details connected to what you picked.
Context Anchor
Seen in FAA online chart or flight-planning instructions, especially when a pilot selects an airspace area or map item to view more information.
Derivation
From 'fly out,' meaning to extend or spring outward. The menu 'flies out' from its parent item to reveal additional content. The term is borrowed from general computer interface design, not from aviation flight.
Why Pilots Care
Pilots checking SUA status, MOA schedules, or restricted area activity online need to know how to navigate these menus to find current information that affects route planning and clearance to fly through or around special use airspace.
Intuition Check
Do not read “fly-out” as an aircraft leaving an area. Here it means a menu on a screen that opens outward from the item you selected.
Example Sentence 1
Before the cross-country, the student selected the MOA on the SUA website and used the fly-out menu to check its activation schedule.
Example Sentence 2
Using the fly-out menu the user quickly accessed the list of active NOTAMs for the restricted airspace.