Definition
Surveyed points on an airport surface, marked with a painted circle and a sign showing the published bearing and distance to a specific VOR station, used by pilots to verify VOR receiver accuracy before flight while the aircraft is parked at that exact spot.
Plain English
A marked spot on the airport ground where you can park your aircraft, tune in a nearby VOR, and check whether your VOR equipment is showing the correct bearing. The published number tells you what the VOR should read when you're sitting on that spot.
Context Anchor
Seen in VOR receiver accuracy checks, especially before IFR flight, and often found as a marked spot or published note for a specific airport.
Why Pilots Care
Confirms VOR accuracy before relying on it for instrument navigation or IFR operations.
Intuition Check
Do not read this as just any convenient place on the ground. In this FAA context, a ground checkpoint is a specific approved location with a known VOR bearing for checking receiver accuracy.
Example Sentence 1
Before departing on the IFR flight, the pilot taxied to the ground checkpoint, tuned the VOR, and confirmed the indicated bearing was within the allowable tolerance.
Example Sentence 2
Before an IFR departure the crew performed a VOR check at the published ground checkpoint.