Glossary
Every abbreviation and term used in FlightOut and its documentation, from AoA to WVR, explained as the game uses it.
Flying
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| AB | Afterburner: extra thrust from burning fuel in the exhaust. Throttle above 85% |
| AGL | Above ground level: height above the ground under you |
| ALT | Altitude above sea level |
| AoA, α | Angle of attack: the angle between the wing and the air flowing past it. The flight controls limit it to 26° |
| AOA LIM | The guarded cockpit switch for the angle of attack and G limiter (K) |
| Approach | The last part of a flight, lining up and descending to land |
| Auto-throttle | Holds a speed by moving the throttle for you. Never uses the afterburner |
| Buffet | Shaking of the airframe as you near the stall |
| Cobra | Pulling the nose up past vertical and back down, with the limiter overridden |
| FBW | Fly-by-wire: the flight control computer between your stick and the control surfaces |
| Flare | Raising the nose just before touchdown to slow the descent |
| G | Load factor: how many times your weight you feel. 1 G in level flight |
| G-LOC | G-induced loss of consciousness: blacking out under high G (with G effects set to Realistic) |
| Glide path | The slope you descend on to land: 3° in FlightOut |
| IAS | Indicated airspeed: the speed the wings feel, shown on the HUD and the airspeed dial |
| IDLE, MIL, MAX | Throttle marks: IDLE is 0%; MIL (military power) is 85%, the most without afterburner; MAX is 100%, full afterburner |
| Mach, M | Speed as a fraction of the speed of sound. Mach 1 is the speed of sound |
| Notch | Flying across a radar's line of sight, with the ground behind you, so it loses you |
| Rotate | Raising the nose on the take-off run |
| Slats | Movable panels on the front of the wing that come out at high angle of attack and with the flaps |
| Stall | When the wing is at too steep an angle to the air and loses lift |
| TAS | True airspeed: your real speed through the air. Higher than IAS up high |
| Trim | Not needed in the Su-27: the fly-by-wire holds your flight path |
The cockpit
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ACS FAIL | Amber lamp: the autopilot let go by itself in a stall |
| ADI | Attitude director indicator: the artificial horizon ball |
| AP, SPD, HDG, ALT, V/S, LVL | Autopilot: on/off, speed hold, heading, altitude, vertical speed, level the jet |
| A/BRK, CNPY, FLAP, GEAR | Airbrake, canopy, flaps and landing gear, on the SYS page |
| EGT | Exhaust gas temperature |
| END | Endurance: minutes of fuel left at the present burn (SYS page) |
| FF | Fuel flow per hour (SYS page) |
| FPM | Flight path marker: the HUD symbol showing where the jet is actually going |
| GEN FAIL, OIL PRESS, HYD 1, HYD 2 | Amber lamps: an engine has run down, or hydraulic pressure is low |
| HSI | Horizontal situation indicator: the compass display between your knees |
| HUD | Head-up display: the glass in front of you with flight and weapon symbols |
| ILS | Instrument landing system. In FlightOut, the HUD landing guidance: a cue, the runway name and the distance |
| K-36 | The Su-27's ejection seat |
| MFD | Multi-function display: the three screens on the front panel |
| NL, NR, TL, TR | Left and right engine speed and temperature (SYS page) |
| O2 LOW | Amber lamp: the oxygen supply is low |
| PAPI | Precision approach path indicator: four lights beside the runway showing whether you're on the glide path |
| RAD ALT, R | Radar altimeter: height above the ground |
| SDU | Amber lamp: the angle of attack and G limiter is off |
| VVI | Vertical velocity indicator: the climb and descent gauge |
Radar, displays and warnings
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ACQ | Acquiring: a lock is being made |
| ASP | Aspect: the angle you see the target from. 0 = his nose points at you, 180 = you're behind him |
| AWACS | An airborne warning aircraft that shares what it sees. Not in the game yet |
| AZ | Azimuth: the width of the radar scan |
| B-scope | The radar display: direction across, range up |
| BARS | How many sweeps, one above the other, the radar makes |
| BORE | Boresight: close combat radar mode looking straight down the nose |
| CM | Countermeasures (chaff and flares). Not in the game yet |
| DL | Datalink: contacts shared by an AWACS. No effect yet |
| EL | Antenna elevation |
| EW | Electronic warfare: the display page showing the radars painting you |
| HUD (radar mode) | Close combat radar mode scanning the HUD's field of view |
| IFF | Identification friend or foe. Not fitted: online everyone is unknown |
| LOCK, LOCK LOST, UNLK | A radar locked on a target; the lock has broken; drop the lock |
| Pulse-Doppler | A radar that tells aircraft from the ground by their speed towards or away from it |
| RDR, SA, SYS, WPN | Display pages: radar, situation awareness map, systems, weapons |
| RNG | The radar's range scale |
| RWR | Radar warning receiver. The Su-27's is the SPO-15 |
| RWS | Range while search: radar search mode |
| STT | Single target track: the radar locked on one aircraft |
| TWS | Track while scan: search that keeps a track on each aircraft |
| VC | Closure: how fast the range is shrinking |
| VS | Vertical scan: close combat radar mode looking up from the nose |
Weapons and combat
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ARH | Active radar homing: the missile has its own radar (R-77) |
| Bandit | A hostile aircraft. Offline: BANDIT 1 to 4 |
| BVR | Beyond visual range: the long-range master mode and fight |
| CAP, BVR, DGFT, CLEAN | Load-out presets: combat air patrol, long range, dogfight, gun only |
| Crank | Turning partly away after firing, keeping the target on your radar |
| Drag | Turning away and running to make a missile chase you until it runs out of energy |
| Fox 1 / 2 / 3 | General pilot slang (not shown in the game) for firing a radar missile, a heat-seeker, an active radar missile |
| Funnel | The gunsight without a lock: two curved walls showing where the shells go |
| GND | Ground attack master mode. No air-to-ground weapons yet |
| GUN | The gun master mode |
| IR | Infrared: heat-seeking (R-73, R-27T, R-27ET) |
| LA | Launch authorised: the target is inside the selected missile's launch zone |
| LCOS | Lead computing optical sight: the gunsight with a radar lock |
| Maddog | An R-77 fired without a lock, taking the first aircraft it sees |
| Merge | When two fighters pass each other close |
| NAV | The navigation master mode |
| No-escape range | Inside it, a missile reaches the target even if he turns and runs |
| Rmax, Rmin | A missile's longest and shortest range |
| SARH | Semi-active radar homing: the missile homes on your radar's lock (R-27R, R-27ER) |
| Seeker | The missile's eye: heat or radar |
| SHOOT | Gunsight cue: the target is 200 to 800 m away |
| Station | A place a missile hangs on the jet: 1 to 10 |
| WVR | Within visual range: the close combat master mode and fight |
The game
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Callsign | Your name online |
| FlightOut Lite | The browser version at run.flightout.app |
| Headless | Running a server with no window |
| Kill feed | The list of who shot down whom, and who crashed, top right, online |
| Ping, ms | The time a message takes to reach the server and come back |
| Practice approach | Offline shortcut onto a 3° final approach, 7 km out (P) |
| Protocol version | The multiplayer version: you and the server must match |
| Slot | Your place in the server's line-up, 01 to 16 |
| Training traffic | Computer-flown jets offline: friendly EAGLEs and hostile BANDITs |
| UDP | The network protocol FlightOut uses: port 27015 for multiplayer, 4242 for head tracking |
Checked against FlightOut 0.5.2.