Definition
TERPS is the FAA's official set of criteria used to design and evaluate instrument flight procedures, including instrument approaches, departures, and arrivals. It specifies the obstacle clearance, descent gradients, course alignment, protected airspace dimensions, and other geometric requirements that every published instrument procedure in the United States must meet.
Plain English
TERPS is the rulebook the FAA uses when drawing up instrument approach, departure, and arrival procedures. It tells procedure designers how high you must be over obstacles, how steep you can descend, and how wide the protected airspace around the route must be.
Context Anchor
Seen in instrument procedure design discussions, especially when explaining how approach paths, minimum altitudes, and obstacle protection are established for airplane or helicopter approaches.
Derivation
Terminal refers to the airspace and procedures around an airport (as opposed to en route). Instrument refers to procedures flown by reference to cockpit instruments rather than visually. Procedures are the published step-by-step routes. Together: the standards for designing instrument procedures in the terminal environment.
Why Pilots Care
Pilots rely on TERPS-designed procedures to ensure safe obstacle clearance and navigation accuracy during instrument approaches.
Intuition Check
TERPS is not an approach chart or a single procedure. It is the FAA design standard used to create and check those procedures.
Example Sentence 1
The approach was designed to TERPS criteria, so the published minimum descent altitude already accounts for terrain and obstacles in the final approach segment.
Example Sentence 2
Any published copter GPS procedure must meet TERPS standards before it can be used for instrument flight.