Definition
In the context of instrument approach charts and airport information, a geographic region is one of several broad areas of the United States used to organize and group airports by location for charting and publication purposes. Each region covers a defined portion of the country and contains the airports whose approach procedures and supporting information are published together for that area.
Plain English
It is one of the large U.S. areas that approach charts and airport information are sorted into, so pilots can find the airports for the part of the country they are flying in.
Context Anchor
Seen when airport, weather, chart, or planning information is grouped by where it is located.
Derivation
From Greek geo (earth) and graphein (to write or describe), so geographic means 'relating to places on the earth.' Region comes from Latin regio, meaning an area or territory. Together, the term simply names a defined area on the map.
Why Pilots Care
Charts, NOTAMs, and procedure publications are organized by geographic region. Knowing which region your destination falls into helps you locate the correct chart book or volume quickly.
Intuition Check
Do not read “geographic region” as a political region or an FAA office region unless the text says that. Here it means an area on the earth used to organize location-based aviation information.
Example Sentence 1
She pulled the approach chart book for the geographic region that covered her destination airport.
Example Sentence 2
Review the geographic region notes before planning a cross-country flight.