Definition
The official FAA criteria document that prescribes how all instrument approach, departure, and arrival procedures in the United States must be designed, including obstacle clearance areas, descent gradients, minimum altitudes, and required visibility values. It is the design rulebook used by procedure designers to build every published instrument procedure pilots fly.
Plain English
It is the FAA's official set of design rules that tells procedure designers how to safely build instrument approaches, departures, and arrivals. Every published instrument procedure a pilot flies was constructed according to this standard.
Context Anchor
Seen when FAA material explains why a published instrument approach or departure has certain altitudes, distances, turns, or helicopter limits.
Derivation
TERPS stands for Terminal Instrument Procedures. 'Terminal' here means the airspace and phases of flight near an airport (arrival, approach, departure) -- not an airport building. The word comes from Latin terminus, meaning 'end' or 'boundary,' and in aviation refers to the end portions of a flight near the airport.
Why Pilots Care
Procedures built to this standard guarantee obstacle clearance and predictable flight paths, directly affecting safety during instrument approaches.
Intuition Check
Do not read “standard” as a casual recommendation, and do not read “terminal” as an airport building. Here, “standard” means official design criteria, and “terminal” means the flight area near an airport or heliport.
Example Sentence 1
Every instrument approach in the U.S., including the copter GPS approach into the heliport, is designed according to the U.S. Standard for Terminal Instrument Procedures.
Example Sentence 2
Pilots must follow procedures created under the U.S. Standard for Terminal Instrument Procedures when conducting instrument approaches in low visibility.