Definition
Airport signs located along the side of a runway that show the distance, in thousands of feet, of runway remaining ahead of the aircraft. Each sign displays a single white numeral on a black background, with the number indicating thousands of feet remaining (for example, a sign showing '3' means 3,000 feet of runway remain).
Plain English
Black signs with a single white number beside the runway. The number tells you how many thousands of feet of runway are still in front of you.
Context Anchor
Seen beside some runways during takeoff, landing roll, or taxi on the runway.
Why Pilots Care
They give real-time distance awareness so pilots can decide whether to continue or abort before running out of pavement.
Analogy
They work like mile markers in reverse: instead of showing how far you have gone, they show how much distance is still left.
Intuition Check
Do not read the number as an exact foot count or as a taxiway marker. On runway distance remaining signs, the number means thousands of feet of runway remaining.
Example Sentence 1
Rolling out after landing, the pilot saw the runway distance remaining sign showing '3' and knew there was plenty of room to slow down before the next taxiway.
Example Sentence 2
During the landing rollout the distance remaining signs helped the crew judge whether they would stop short of the threshold.