PRIVATE AVIATION GLOSSARY

A

AIR AMBULANCE – Air charter of a private jet, helicopter or turbo-prop certified to provide air transport to medical patients.

AIR CHARTER – Act of renting or leasing a jet or plane for transport of cargo or passengers.

AIR CHARTER AGENT – One who is contracted on behalf of the end user of the charter flight. A charter agent works to ensure fair market value, reasonable safety measures are followed and to provide flexibility and options for the purchaser of the air charter flight.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER – The service to pilots that promotes the safe, orderly and expeditious flow of air traffic. Usually each country operates its own Air Traffic Control service. In the UK, Air Traffic Control services are provided by NATS.

AIRCRAFT – A machine used for flight which gains lift or support from the air.

AIRCRAFT INSURANCE – Covers the operation of aircraft and the risks involved in aviation.

AIRPORT – An area that is used for takeoffs and landings of aircrafts. Airports can be on land or water.

AIRSHOW – A cabin information system that displays the aircraft’s position on a moving map, with altitude, time to destination, outside temperature and other flight data.

AIRSPEED – Speed of an aircraft relative to its surrounding air mass.

AIRWAY DISTANCE – Actual distance flown by the aircraft between two points (as opposed to straight line). Calculated after deviations required by Air Traffic Control and navigation along published routes.

ALTERNATE AIRPORT – An airport other than the intended airport, where an aircraft can land for safety or other reasons.

ALTERNATE – Airport indicated on a flight plan where it is possible to divert the aircraft from its scheduled destination (in case of bad weather or any other major situation).

ALTITUDE – Vertical distance between an object and mean sea level.

AUGMENTED CREW – See Heavy Crew.

AVGAS – Aviation Gasoline. Usually followed by the octane rating. Used by piston-engined aircraft.

AVIATION – The operation, development, production and use of aircraft.

AVIONICS – The electronic control systems airplanes use for flight such as communications, autopilots, and navigation.

AVTUR – Aviation Turbine fuel (kerosene). Used by turboprops and jet aircraft.

B

BASE – Base of operations or a HUB for an airline. The base leg is also one of the many words describing the approach segments.

BEECHCRAFT HAWKER – Business jet aircraft built by Hawker Beechcraft Corporation (HBC) between 2006 and 2013.

BLACK BOX – Popular name given to either the CVR or the FDR used to investigate an accident.

BLEED AIR – Hot compressed air taken from turbine engines.

BLOCK FLYING TIME – Time between an aircraft first moving from its parking place for the purpose of taking off until it comes to rest on the designated parking position and until all engines are stopped.

BLOCK HOURS – The advance purchase of a specific number of hours of flying time, to be flown as and when required.

BLOCK RATES – Rate for scheduling significant amounts of air charter time in advance under a prearranged agreement.

BLOCK SPEED – The average speed at which an aircraft covers a specific distance.

BOEING BUSINESS JET – A series of Boeing airliners designed for the corporate jet market and seating between 25 and 50 passengers within a luxurious configuration.

BOMBARDIER – A family of business jets.

BOMBARDIER GLOBAL EXPRESS – A large cabin, ultra long range business jet manufactured by Bombardier Aerospace in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

BUSINESS JET – A smaller Commercial jet aircraft model, configured to transport smaller groups of people.

BUSINESS JET CHARTER – An aircraft that is chartered for the purpose or use in business transportation.

C

CARBON CREDIT – Key component of national and international emissions trading schemes. They provide a way to reduce greenhouse effect emissions on an industrial scale by capping total annual emissions and letting the market assign a monetary value to any shortfall through trading. Credits can be exchanged between businesses or bought and sold in international markets at the prevailing market price. Credits can be used to finance carbon reduction schemes between trading partners and around the world.

CARBON EMISSIONS – The principal greenhouse gas emission. Carbon is largely thought to be the most dangerous greenhouse gas.

CARBON OFFSET – Monetary contributions to renewable energy research and production projects, designed to reflect and mitigate the user’s own greenhouse gas emissions eg through air travel.

CARDINAL ALTITUDE – An altitude, or flight level, of a thousand feet.

CATERING – A service provided for luxury jet charters. Catering is the provision of in-flight meals.

CEILING – Height above ground or water level of the base of the lowest layer of cloud, below 20,000 feet, covering more than half of the sky. Service ceiling also means an aircraft’s DENSITY ALTITUDE at which its maximum rate of climb is lower or equal to 100 feet per minute. The absolute ceiling is the highest altitude at which the aircraft can maintain level flight.

CESSNA – An American general aviation aircraft manufacturing corporation headquartered in Wichita, Kan. Known for small, piston-powered aircraft, as well as business jets.

CHARTER BROKER – An individual or company that acts as a middle man between the charter operators and the charter passengers. A good broker will be able to find the best deal for his customer’s needs.

CHARTER CARD – Pre-paid air charter plan, either for a block of charter hours at a pre-defined fee, or a set debit balance in dollars.

CLEARANCE – Authorization given by ATC to proceed as requested or instructed (for example: “Cleared for take-off”, “Cleared for visual approach”).

CLUB SEATING – A seating layout where pairs of seats face each other, as in a railway carriage compartment, rather than all face the same way, as on a bus. The club configuration is more sociable and enables easy conversation between occupants.

COAST TRACK – Status of an aircraft that is no longer giving a radar return. The air traffic control screen will display this status (usually with the acronym CST) and will temporarily continue displaying the aircraft’s movement at the last heading and speed, as if it was “coasting.”

COMMERCIAL FLIGHT – A “commercial” flight is when the customer has paid for a commercial charter of that aircraft. The rules for commercial flights are more stringent than private flights and include limitations on crew duty hours, runway length and other safety considerations. For commercial private jet charter the minimum stopping distance for the aircraft is multiplied by 1.6, to create the minimum landing distance required (LDR).

COMMUTER OPERATOR – A regional, scheduled airline. In this book limited to that operator with adequate fleet capacity as to be available of charter. Not all commuter airlines charter, because of the limitations of aircraft and crew availability.

CONNECTION – Transfer between two different flights at an intermediate airport (for example: flight 123 from New York to Miami followed by flight 456 from Miami to Sao Paulo). If a passenger’s flights are operated by two different airlines, they may check baggage or obtain boarding passes for the entire itinerary directly at the departure city’s airport, pursuant to interlining agreements or airline alliances. A connection is not the same as a stopover.

CONTRAILS – Streaks of condensed water vapor created in the air by aircraft flying at high altitudes; aka vapor trails.

CONTROLLED AIRSPACE – Defined airspace where Air Traffic Control service is provided to IFR flights and to VFR flights.

CORPORATE OPERATOR – A company flight department which has earned a “Part 135” certificate to carry passengers for compensation.

CROSSWIND – Winds blowing perpendicular or not parallel to the runway or the aircrafts flight path.

CRUISE SPEED – The normal speed attained at altitude once the aircraft is no longer climbing and is en route.

CRUISING ALTITUDE – A level altitude maintained by an aircraft while in flight.

D

DASSAULT FALCON – A family of business jets manufactured by Dassault Aviation.

DEAD HEAD – A leg of an air charter with no cargo or no passengers. Commonly the return leg, but may also be the repositioning.

DEAD LEG – See empty leg.

DEAD-HEADING – See Repositioning.

DECISION HEIGHT – In an instrument approach flight, the height at which a decision must be made to either continue the approach or to execute a missed approach.

DEMURRAGE – Refers to the charges that are levied by an operator when a charterer keeps an aircraft after the completion of the flight. For example, if an aircraft is chartered for two flights with a week intervening, an aircraft may remain or lay over at the destination. The charterer will pay demurrage charges for every day that this aircraft remains at the charterer’s destination without returning home.

DENSITY ALTITUDE – Pressure altitude (as indicated by the altimeter) corrected for air temperature.

DEPRECIATION – Method to account for assets whose value decrease over time because of factors such as age, wear or market conditions.

DIRECT FLIGHT – A flight that operates from point A to point B without a connection. A direct flight is not necessarily non-stop.

DME – Distance-Measuring Equipment. A combination of ground and airborne equipment which gives a continuous slant range distance-from-station readout by measuring time-lapse of a signal transmitted by the aircraft to the station and responded back. DMEs can also provide groundspeed and time-to-station readouts by differentiation.

DOUBLE ROUND TRIP – Occurs when an air charter itinerary is designed such that it is more costly to keep the plane away from base than it would be to return home empty the report for pick up to complete the air charter itinerary.

DOWNWIND – One of the many words describing the approach segments.

DUTY TIME – A pilot or crew member is logging duty time whenever he is serving in any capacity. There are safety restrictions on duty time to ensure pilots and crew are sufficiently rested.

E

EMPTY LEGS – A re-positioning flight where the aircraft is flying empty. Chartering an empty leg can cost significantly less than a full-price charter.

EXECUTIVE JET CHARTER – An aircraft that is chartered for the purpose or use in the transportation of executives. Typically the aircrafts that are chartered are midsize jets.

F

FEATURED CHARTER – The chartering of a specific aircraft to a specific destination. Featured charters often include hotel accommodations, luxury car rentals, golf and spa packages etc.

FERRY FLIGHT – A flight for the purpose of returning an aircraft to base, delivering an aircraft from one location to another, moving an aircraft to and from a maintenance base.

FINAL – Final Approach. One of the many words describing the approach segments. The part of a landing sequence or aerodrome circuit procedure in which the aircraft has made its final turn and is inbound to the active runway.

FLEET MANAGER – A commercial aviation entity developed to subcontract the maintenance and operation of corporate aircraft, which are often chartered out to the general public.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT – A member of the crew dedicated to attending to the passengers during the flight. Often able to meet advance requests for specific catering, drinks, magazines, flowers or other requirements.

FLIGHT PLAN – Filed with an Air Traffic Control Facility a flight plan is the specific information regarding the flight or intended flight of an aircraft.

FLIGHT TIME – The time between take-off and landing. Excludes any time spent taxiing to and from the stand.

FRACTIONAL OWNERSHIP – The purchase of a “share” of an aircraft. Fractional owners are guaranteed access to an aircraft but not necessarily the same one each time. They usually pay a fixed monthly maintenance fee as well as an hourly fee.

FREEDOM OF THE AIR – Commercial aviation right governing carriage of PAYLOAD between or within countries.

FUEL SURCHARGE – A charge for the increased price of fuel to cover fuel price increases.

FUSELAGE – An aircraft’s main body structure housing the flight crew, passengers, and cargo.

G

GAT – Abbreviation for General Aviation Terminal. The Handling Agents will often be located here as GA terminals are much quieter than scheduled terminals.

GENERAL AVIATION – The aviation industry categorizes flights as either Scheduled, Cargo, Military or General. Non-airline passenger flights fall in the broad General Aviation category, however the terms Business Aviation or Executive Aviation are frequently used to differentiate private jet charter flights from light aircraft enthusiast flights.

GO-AROUND – Balked approach, when the aircraft climbs away from the runway during the approach, to either start the approach again, or proceed to the ALTERNATE AIRPORT.

GREAT CIRCLE DISTANCE – The shortest distance between two points on a globe. All distances shown in distance tables in the Air Charter Guide are “great circle distance”.

GROUND SPEED – The speed of an aircraft relative to the surface of the earth.

GROUND TRANSPORTATION – A service provided for luxury jet charters before or after the flight. Ground transportation can be limo service or luxury car rental.

GULFSTREAM – Business jet aircraft designed and manufactured by Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics. Gulfstream’s fleet consists of these models: G150, G280, G350, G450, G500, G550, and G650.

H

HANDLING AGENT – A company appointed by the operator to greet and ease their passengers’ passage through an airport. Will typically feature a dedicated car park, VIP lounge, security and immigration liaison and baggage porterage.

HANGAR – An enclosed structure for housing aircraft. Originated with lake-based floating homes of the original German Zeppelins in which they were “hung” from cables.

HEAVY CREW – Flying with one or more additional flight crew members. On occasion an ultra-long range aircraft might carry additional pilots to allow each to rest in rotation and counter the onset of fatigue.

HEAVY JET – An aircraft with a minimum takeoff weight of 255,000 lbs.

HEAVY – Suffix used in radio transmission callsigns (for example: “United 492 Heavy”) to indicate the aircraft is capable of generating WAKE TURBULENCE.

HELICOPTER – A rotor driven aircraft that uses vertical axes with pitched blades to generate lift and stability.

HELIPAD – Used by helicopters for takeoffs, landings and occasionally for parking.

HELIPORT – The area of land or water used for the landings and takeoffs of helicopters, the buildings, structures and grounds.

HOLDING PATTERN – Maneuver consisting of making the aircraft turn around the aerodrome a