Definition
An FAA office within a geographic region of the United States that oversees Flight Standards activities — including pilot certification, instructor certification, airman testing, and the conduct of Flight Standards District Offices (FSDOs) within that region.
Plain English
A regional FAA office that supervises pilot and instructor certification matters across a group of states. It sits above the local FSDOs and handles bigger or appealed issues that the local office passes up.
Context Anchor
Seen in FAA handbooks when the text refers to where instructors, pilots, schools, or FAA personnel may get guidance or oversight beyond the local office level.
Derivation
‘Regional’ means covering a region — a defined geographic area larger than a single city or state. ‘Flight Standards’ is the FAA branch that sets and enforces the standards for how flying is done (training, certification, operations). ‘Division’ here means a working unit within the FAA structure. So the name describes exactly what it is: the Flight Standards working unit for a region.
Why Pilots Care
It sets the regional standards and performs inspections that directly affect how training is conducted and whether a pilot's certificate remains valid.
Intuition Check
Do not read “regional” as meaning a regional airline or a short flight. Here it means an FAA geographic area. “Division” means an FAA office or organizational unit, not a split in airspace or a flight procedure.
Example Sentence 1
When the instructor could not resolve the testing issue with the local FSDO, he forwarded the matter to the Regional Flight Standards Division.
Example Sentence 2
An instructor contacted the Regional Flight Standards Division to clarify recent changes to checkride requirements.