Definition
Headings issued by air traffic control (ATC) to guide an aircraft along a specific ground track, typically for traffic separation, sequencing to an approach, or navigation assistance. The controller assigns the heading the pilot is to fly, and may update it as the flight progresses.
Plain English
Headings that ATC tells you to fly so they can steer you where they want you to go.
Context Anchor
Heard in radio calls from ATC, especially during instrument departures, arrivals, approaches, and traffic sequencing near airports.
Derivation
From the Latin 'vector,' meaning 'one who carries or conveys.' In navigation it came to mean a directed line — something with both a direction and a magnitude. In ATC use, only the direction part matters: the heading the controller wants you to fly.
Why Pilots Care
Allows ATC to sequence traffic, provide safe separation, avoid weather, and guide aircraft to the runway.
Analogy
Vectors are like turn-by-turn directions from someone watching the bigger traffic picture. You still fly the airplane, but ATC is choosing the next heading to guide your path.
Intuition Check
Vectors are not a full route or a suggestion. They are specific ATC heading instructions you are expected to follow unless safety requires otherwise.
Example Sentence 1
Approach gave us vectors to final for the ILS runway 27.
Example Sentence 2
The controller vectored the aircraft around the thunderstorm before resuming the approach.