Definition
A method of air navigation in which the pilot determines position and tracks a course by visually identifying features on the ground -- such as roads, rivers, towns, railways, coastlines, and prominent terrain -- and comparing them to a chart.
Plain English
Finding your way by looking outside, recognizing things on the ground, and matching them to your map.
Context Anchor
In emergency airport planning, a pilot may use pilotage by landmarks to visually locate a nearby airport or landing area when normal navigation help is limited or unavailable.
Derivation
From the French 'pilotage,' meaning the act of steering or guiding a vessel, originally a nautical term for navigating coastal waters by sighting shore features. The same idea carried over to aviation: steer by what you can see.
Why Pilots Care
Provides a reliable backup method to reach an airport when instruments or radios fail.
Intuition Check
Do not read pilotage by landmarks as simply noticing scenery. In aviation, it means deliberately using visible ground features to know where the aircraft is and where it should go next.
Example Sentence 1
After losing GPS, the pilot used pilotage by landmarks, following the highway and river to locate the nearest emergency airport.
Example Sentence 2
In the emergency section, the handbook recommends pilotage by landmarks for locating a suitable landing site when all electronic aids are lost.