Ever since my first tentative steps into the world of ICAO provisions and the hard learned lessons about the need to use terminology properly even to a fault, I had this thing about texts that were lax and inconsistent in terminology use. To put it bluntly, I hated them. Not only do they fail to convey the intended message properly, they can potentially confuse the reader and may in fact result in requirements being defined erroneously. True, in the end things tend to sort themselves out but not before a lot of extra, totally unnecessary effort has been expended and with no guarantee that every instance of incorrect terminology use has been taken care of.
Descriptions that call everything a system, where information is down-linked or up-linked instead of being shared or published, where the vertical distance from the aerodrome’s elevation is called an altitude, etc., etc., still abound unfortunately and I am in the process of writing an article expressing my displeasure and suggesting some steps to remedy the situation.
When my attention was called to a new glossary of Air Traffic Management terms and definitions produced as part of the Episode 3 project deliverables, I went to have a look right away. Obviously, the new ATM environment will be generating its own terms and definitions and proper terminology use starts with having wide agreement on the meaning of the terms we use.
The document is composed of four parts and initially you can safely ignore Part 1 unless you are especially drawn to details of the Episode 3 project or need guidance on the structure of this document. It is Part 2 and Part 3 that you will want to look at first and foremost.
The abbreviations in Part 2 are pretty standard fare although there are several new ones you may not have encountered before. Part 3 contains definitions and many of those will be new or at least appear to be newly crafted for the Episode 3 project. You may not agree with all of them or miss some that should be there…
Overall I think this is a very valuable and interesting document. Certainly not the last word on ATM definitions for the new environments like SESAR and NextGen, but a good start nevertheless. If nothing else, it gives us a common baseline around which to argue about the meaning of some of the new terms and concepts.
Get your copy of the glossary here.
If you have any comment or addition, the best way is to write to Philippe Leplae here. You can also leave a comment below; we will make sure it reaches the appropriate people.
