Aviation English by Revise Before Flight

Episode 24: Mid-Flight Compound Nouns: Three Everyday Expressions

What happens when a phrasal verb becomes a noun? Discover the pattern behind three familiar Aviation English expressions: level-off, handoff, and readback.
Explore how these compound nouns work in operational communication and sharpen your language beyond the checklist.

🎧 Listen, refine your language, and keep learning beyond the checklist.
ReviseBeforeFlight.com

High or tall?
✈️ In Episode 23 of The Skybound Dictionary, we explore the difference between these two deceptively simple words:
🔹 TALL → physical height
🔹 HIGH → position, elevation, level or degree From tall towers to high altitude, discover how to choose the right word for precise aviation English. The right word. The right meaning.
🎧 Listen now — and keep your aviation English sharp.

In this episode of aviation English by Revise Before Flight, I look at the language used to describe the recent Amazon Prime Air runway excursion at Miami International Airport.

What is the difference between overran and excursion? Why does the NTSB use struck rather than hit? And what exactly are navigational aids and equipment?
Using the NTSB’s own wording, I explore three vocabulary choices that can help pilots and aviation professionals communicate more precisely - especially when discussing accidents and incidents.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
✈️ overran vs excursion
✈️ struck vs hit
✈️ navigational aids vs equipment
✈️ how register and precision matter in aviation English
✈️ how official accident-reporting language differs from everyday English
The NTSB investigation is ongoing, so I’ll focus on the language used to describe the event, not on drawing conclusions about its cause.

🎙️ ICAO Booster #1 — How To Describe Turbulence Precisely

Turbulence can be routine — or it can become a genuine operational concern. In this first episode of the ICAO Booster series, I break down exactly how to describe turbulence with precision: from grammar (why turbulence is uncountable) to intensity (light, moderate, severe, extreme) to the difference between occasional and intermittent. Using a real NTSB report on United Airlines Flight 115, I'll see how professional aviation language turns an ordinary in-flight event into a precise operational description — right down to a Level 5/6 phrase you can learn by heart.

✈️ Read the accompanying blog post with a visual summary and phraseology notes:
https://revisebeforeflight.com/how-to-describe-turbulence-precisely/

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🎙️ Minimum Fuel vs Fuel Emergency — Aviation English Beyond the Checklist (AVA052)

When should a pilot report "Minimum Fuel" and when is it time to declare "Mayday, fuel"? In this episode, we explore the crucial difference between these two ICAO expressions, why they are not interchangeable, and how precise communication can make all the difference in flight operations. Using Avianca Flight 052 as a case study, we'll see how one accident reinforced the importance of standard ICAO phraseology and clear pilot–controller communication.

✈️ Read the accompanying blog post with a visual summary and phraseology notes:
https://revisebeforeflight.com/minimum-fuel-vs-fuel-emergency/

📩 Join the Aviation English Logbook newsletter for exclusive learning materials and podcast updates. Have an idea for a future episode?
[email protected]
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