Definition
The portion of an instrument approach in which the aircraft is aligned with the runway centerline (or within the alignment tolerance allowed by the procedure) and descends on the final approach course toward the runway. It begins at the final approach fix or final approach point and ends at the missed approach point or runway threshold.
Plain English
The last part of an instrument approach where the aircraft is lined up with the runway and flying straight in to land, rather than circling to another runway.
Context Anchor
Seen in instrument approach and SVGS discussions, especially when describing guidance that applies to the aligned final path to a runway.
Derivation
"Straight-in" means lined up with the runway being landed on. "Final" is the last leg before landing. "Segment" comes from Latin "segmentum," a piece cut off — here, one defined piece of the overall approach.
Why Pilots Care
Enables precise runway alignment and reduced workload during low-visibility landings using guidance systems such as SVGS.
Intuition Check
“Straight-in” does not mean any direct-looking path toward the airport. Here it means the published final part of an instrument approach that is aligned with the landing runway.
Example Sentence 1
Once established on the straight-in final approach segment, the pilot configured for landing and began tracking the glidepath.
Example Sentence 2
SVGS symbology helped the pilot maintain the straight-in final approach segment in low visibility conditions.