Definition
A daily publication issued by the FAA's National Flight Data Center containing changes to aeronautical information that affect charts, publications, and air traffic procedures. It distributes updates to the data used by chart producers, flight information systems, and operators between regular charting cycles.
Plain English
A daily FAA bulletin that lists changes to flight information — things like new airport details, runway changes, navigation aid updates, or procedure changes — so the people who make charts and run flight systems can keep their information current.
Context Anchor
Seen in FAA references, charting updates, airport data changes, and discussions about how official flight information is updated.
Derivation
"Digest" comes from the Latin digestus, meaning "arranged" or "sorted into order" — a digest is a collected, organized summary. The NFDD is literally a daily-arranged summary of national flight data changes.
Why Pilots Care
Keeps pilots and operators current on airspace and procedure changes that affect chart validity and flight safety.
Intuition Check
Do not read “digest” as a casual summary or study guide here. In this context, the NFDD is an official FAA notice source for changes to flight data.
Example Sentence 1
Changes to airport runway lengths and navigation aid frequencies are published in the NFDD before they appear on the next charting cycle.
Example Sentence 2
All changes in the NFDD are incorporated into the next chart cycle.