Definition
Prominent natural or man-made features on the ground — such as rivers, coastlines, highways, railroads, towers, bridges, and distinctive buildings — that a pilot can see from the air and use as references for navigation, position reporting, or describing a location to ATC.
Plain English
Things on the ground that stand out clearly when you look down from the airplane, and that you can use to figure out where you are or to tell someone else where you are.
Context Anchor
Used when describing a route, reporting position, locating an airport, or matching what is outside the aircraft to information in a procedure or briefing.
Derivation
Landmark comes from land and mark. It originally meant a mark or feature used to identify a place on land. In aviation, the same idea applies from above: a recognizable feature helps mark your location.
Why Pilots Care
Allows pilots to maintain situational awareness and comply with visual segments of instrument procedures without relying solely on instruments.
Intuition Check
Do not assume a landmark is useful just because it exists on a chart. In this context, visible means the pilot can actually see and recognize it from the aircraft in the current conditions.
Example Sentence 1
The controller asked the pilot to report when passing the river, using it as a visible landmark to sequence traffic into the airport.
Example Sentence 2
During the visual approach, the runway threshold and adjacent highway served as visible landmarks for alignment.