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This article will explain the main abbreviations used in connection with drones by manufacturers, public organizations, operators and associations.
You will find an abbreviation which you are looking for in the table below.
| Abbreviation | Definition |
|---|---|
| AC | Advisory Circular |
| AD | Aerodrome |
| AEC | Airspace Encounter Category |
| AEH | Airborne Electronic Hardware |
| AGL | Above Ground Level (Altitude above Ground Level) |
| AH | Altitude Hold |
| AHRS | Attitude and Heading Reference System |
| AIAA | Area of Intense Aerial Activity |
| AIC | Aeronautical Information Circular |
| AIP | Aeronautical Information Package / Aeronautical Information Publication |
| AIRPROX | A near collision between two aircraft |
| AIS | Aeronautical Information Service / Automatic Identification System |
| AMA | Academy of Model Aeronautics |
| AMC | Acceptable Means of Compliance |
| AMSL | Above Mean Sea Level |
| ANSP | Air Navigation Service Provider |
| AO | Airspace Observer |
| AOA | Angle of Attack |
| AP | Aerial Photography |
| ARC | Air Risk Class. Part of the SORA. |
| ARF | Almost Ready to Fly |
| ARN | Aviation Reference Number |
| ARTF or ARF | Almost Ready To Fly |
| ASSN | Application Specific Sensor Node |
| ATC | Air Traffic Control |
| ATIS | Automatic Terminal Information Service |
| ATM | Air Traffic Management |
| ATS | Air Traffic Service. For example weather information en route. |
| ATTI Mode | Attitude Mode |
| ATZ | Aerodrome Traffic Zone / Air Traffic Zone |
| AUVSI | Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International |
| AUW | All Up Weight |
| AWO | Aerial Work Operation |
| BAR | Barometric Altimeter |
| BARO | Barometric Altimeter |
| BEC | Battery Elimination Circuit |
| BLOS | Beyond line of sight |
| BNF | Bind N Fly |
| BPS | Barometric Pressure Sensor |
| BVLOS | Beyond Visual Line of Sight |
| CAA | Civil Aviation Act 1988 / Civil Aviation Authority |
| CAP | Civil Aviation Publication |
| CAR | Civil Aviation Safety Regulations 1998 |
| CASA | Civil Aviation Safety Authority |
| CCW | Counterclockwise |
| CF | Carbon Fiber |
| CG or COG | Center of Gravity |
| CLARC | CASA Licencing and Registration Centre |
| COA | Certificate of Authorization |
| ConOps | Concept of Operations |
| CPU | Central Processing Unit |
| CTA | Controlled Airspace / Control Area |
| CTR | Control Zone / Controlled Traffic Region |
| CW | Clockwise |
| C2 | Command and Control |
| C3 | Command, Control and Communication |
| D&A or DAA | Detect and Avoid |
| DG | Direct georeferencing |
| DGAC | French Directorate for Civil Aviation |
| DGPS | Differential Global Positioning System |
| DIY | Do It Yourself |
| DJI | Shenzhen DJI Sciences and Technologies Ltd, which stands for Da-Jiang Innovations |
| DRL | Drone Racing League |
| DSM | Digital Spectrum Modulation |
| DSSS | Direct-Sequence Spread Spectrum |
| D&A or DAA | Detect and Avoid |
| EASA | European Union Aviation Safety Agency |
| ECA | Emergency Controlling Authority |
| EEA | European Economic Area |
| EEPROM | Electronically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory |
| EFB | Electronic Flight Bag |
| ELEV | Elevator |
| EMI | Electromagnetic Interference |
| EO/IR | Electro-optical/Infrared |
| ERP | Emergency Response Plan |
| ERSA | Enroute Supplement Australia |
| ESC | Electronic Speed Control |
| EU | European Union |
| EVLOS | Extended Visual Line of Sight |
| FAA – United States | Federal Aviation Administration |
| FAR | Federal Aviation Regulations |
| FC | Flight Controller |
| FCB | Flight Control Board |
| FCC | Federal Communications Commission |
| FHSS | Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum |
| FIR | Flight Information Region |
| FMRA | FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 Subtitle B pertains to Unmanned Aircraft systems |
| FL | Flight Level |
| FLIR | Forwarding Looking InfraRed |
| FOV | Field of View |
| FPV | First-Person View |
| GCP | Ground Control Point |
| GCS | Ground Control Station / Ground Control System |
| GM | Guidance Material |
| GND | Ground |
| GIS | Geographic Information System |
| GLONASS | Globalnaya Navigazionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema, or Global Navigation Satellite System |
| GNSS | Global Navigation Satellite System |
| GPS | Global Positioning System |
| GRC | Ground Risk Class. Part of the SORA |
| Hexa | Hexacopter |
| HIRTA | High Intensity Radio Transmission Area |
| HLS | Helicopter Landing Site |
| HMI | Human Machine Interface |
| ICAO | International Civil Aviation Organization |
| IFR | Instrumental Flight Rules |
| ILT | The Netherlands Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate / Inspectie Leefomgeving en Transport. The CAA in the Netherlands. |
| I.M.S.A.F.E. | Illness, Medicines, Stress, Alcohol, Fatigued, Eating |
| IMU | Inertial Measurement Unit |
| INS | Inertial Navigation System |
| IOC | Intelligent Orientation Control |
| ISM | Industrial, Scientific and Medical |
| JARUS | Joint Authorities for Rulemaking on Unmanned Systems |
| LAANC | Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability system |
| LiDAR | Light Detection and Ranging |
| Li-Ion | Lithium Ion |
| LIPO | Lithium Polymer battery, aka LiPoly |
| LM | Landing mass |
| LOS | Line Of Sight |
| LVNL | Luchtverkeersleiding Nederland (Air Traffic Control In the Netherlands) |
| LW | Landing weight |
| mAh | milli Amp hours |
| MAV | Micro Air Vehicle |
| MAVLink | The Micro Air Vehicle communications protocol |
| MCC | Multi-Crew Cooperation |
| MCU | Micro Controller Unit |
| MEF | Maximum Elevation Figure |
| METAR | Meteorological Terminal Aviation Routine Weather Report or Meteorological Aerodrome Report |
| MGTOW | Maximum Gross Takeoff Weight |
| ML | Mean level |
| MSL | Mean Sea Level |
| MTOM | Maximum Take-Off Mass |
| MTOW | Maximum Take-Off Weight |
| MTW | Maximum Take-Off Weight |
| NAA | National Aviation Authority |
| NAS | National Airspace System |
| NOTAM | Notice to Airmen or Notice to Air Missions (US wording) |
| NPRM | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking |
| NTSB | National Traffic Safety Board |
| O3 Transmission | O3 (OcuSync 3.0) image transmission technology |
| OA | Operational Authorisation |
| OAS | Obstacle Avoidance System |
| OCTO | Octocopter |
| OM | Operations Manual |
| OSC | Operational Safety Case |
| OSD | On-Screen Display |
| OSO | Operational Safety Objective |
| PCB | Printed circuit board |
| PDB | Power Distribution Board |
| PDRA | Predefined Risk Assessment |
| PfCO | Permission for Commercial Operation |
| PIC | Pilot in Command or Person In Charge |
| PID controller | Proportional–Integral–Derivative controller |
| POI | Point of Interest |
| PPK | Post-Processing Kinematic |
| PWM | Pulse Width Modulation |
| RBO | Risk-Based Oversight |
| RC | Remote Control / Radio Controller |
| RCAPA | Remote Control Aerial Photography Association |
| RCP | Required Communication Performance |
| ReOC | Remotely Piloted Aircraft Operator’s Certificate |
| RePL | Remote Pilot Licence |
| RF | Radio Frequency |
| RFI | Radio-frequency interference |
| RLP | Required C2 Link Performance |
| RMZ | Radio Mandatory Zone |
| RP | Remote Pilot |
| RPA | Remotely Piloted Aircraft |
| RPAS | Remotely Piloted Aircraft System |
| RPAV | Remotely Piloted Aerial Vehicle |
| RPM | Revolutions Per Minute |
| RPS | Remote Pilot Station |
| RPV | Remotely Piloted Vehicle |
| ROA | Remotely Operated Aircraft |
| RSSI | Received Signal Strength Indicator |
| RTCA | Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics |
| RTF | Ready to Fly |
| RTK | Real-Time Kinetics |
| RTL | Return to Launch |
| RTH | Return to Home |
| RUD | Rudder |
| Rx | Radio Receiver |
| SAA | Sense and Avoid |
| SAIL | Specific Assurance and Integrity Level |
| SAR | Search and Rescue |
| SERA | Standardized European Rules of the Air |
| SHF | Super High Frequency (3 GHz – 30 GHz) |
| SMM | Safety Management Manual |
| SORA | Specific Operational Risk Assessment |
| SPECI | Aviation Selected Special Weather Code in (aeronautical) meteorological code |
| STS | Standard Scenario |
| SUA | Small Unmanned Aircraft |
| sUAS | small Unmanned Aircraft System |
| SUSA | Small Unmanned Surveillance Aircraft |
| SW | Software |
| TAF | Terminal Area Forecast |
| TCAS | Traffic Collision Avoidance System |
| TFR | Temporary Flight Restriction |
| TGB | Tijdelijk Gebied met Beperkingen (temporary area with local restrictions) |
| TKA | Transport Competence Agency (Lithuania) |
| TMA | Terminal Control Area / Terminal Manoeuvring Area |
| TMPR | Tactical Mitigation Performance Requirement |
| TMZ | Transponder Mandatory Zone |
| TRA | Temporary Reserved Area / Temporary Reserved Airspace |
| TSA | Temporary Segregated Area |
| Tx | Radio Transmitter |
| UA | Unmanned Aircraft |
| UAQ | Unmanned Aircraft Qualification |
| UAS | Unmanned Aircraft System / Unmanned Airborne System |
| UAV | Unmanned Aerial Vehicle |
| UAVS | Unmanned Aircraft Vehicle System |
| UAVSA | Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems Association |
| UDP | Uniform Daylight Period |
| UHF | Ultra High Frequency (300 MHz – 3 GHz) |
| UN | United Nations |
| UOC | Unmanned Operator’s Certificate |
| UTM | Unmanned Traffic Management |
| VFR | Visual Flight Rules |
| VLL | Very Low Level |
| VLOS | Visual Line of Sight |
| VMC | Visual Meteorological Conditions |
| VO | Visual Observer (spotter) |
| VOLMET | French words “vol” (flight) and “météo” (weather) |
| VTOL | Vertical Takeoff and Landing |
| VRS | Vortex Ring State |
| VRx | Video Receiver |
| VTX | Video Transmitter |
| WAAS | Wide Area Augmentation System |
| WGS | World Geodetic System |
| WMO | World Meteorological Organization |
| YAW | Quadcopter rotation around it’s center axis on a level plane |
Summary
There are many technical abbreviations used within the drone industry as a result of its rapid spread. We hope that you found the abbreviation you were looking for.
Please leave the comment if you did not find it. We will add it to this list.
Thank you for reading.
If you like to read more you can check other articles on our website:
If you interested in DIY projects with Raspberry PI and Arduino visit Acoptex.com.
Last update: 07/12/2021
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