Definition
A service provided at selected non-towered airports by a Flight Service Station (FSS) located on the field. The FSS specialist gives arriving and departing pilots information such as wind direction and speed, favored runway, altimeter setting, known traffic, NOTAMs, and field conditions. It is an advisory service only — the FSS does not control traffic or issue clearances.
Plain English
When a small airport has no control tower but does have a Flight Service Station on the field, that station can give you helpful information about wind, runway in use, weather, and other traffic. It's advice, not instructions — you still make your own decisions about when and how to land or take off.
Context Anchor
You may hear or request a Local Airport Advisory on the radio when arriving at or departing from a non-towered airport that has flight service advisory support.
Derivation
Local because the service comes from a station physically on that airport. Advisory because the information is offered to help the pilot decide, not to direct the pilot. The word advisory comes from Latin advisare, meaning to consider or look toward — fitting, since the pilot considers the information and then chooses.
Why Pilots Care
At airports without a tower, pilots use this information to maintain separation from other traffic and to know current runway and weather conditions before landing or departing.
Intuition Check
Do not treat an advisory like an instruction or clearance. A Local Airport Advisory gives useful information, but it does not control your aircraft or separate you from traffic.
Example Sentence 1
Approaching the field, the pilot called the on-airport FSS and received a Local Airport Advisory with the favored runway, wind, and altimeter setting.
Example Sentence 2
LAA reported light winds from the west and no other traffic in the pattern for runway 18.