Aircraft vectoring is a

navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...

service provided to aircraft by

air traffic control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airs ...

. The controller decides on a particular

airfield traffic pattern An airfield traffic pattern is a standard path followed by aircraft when taking off or landing while maintaining visual contact with the airfield. At an airport, the pattern (or circuit) is a standard path for coordinating air traffic. It differ ...

for the aircraft to fly, composed of specific legs or vectors. The aircraft then follows this pattern when the controller instructs the pilot to fly specific

headings Heading can refer to: * Heading (metalworking), a process which incorporates the extruding and upsetting processes * Headline, text at the top of a newspaper article * Heading (navigation), the direction a person or vehicle is facing, usually si ...

at appropriate times. Vectoring is used to separate aircraft by a specified distance, to aid the navigation of flights, and to guide arriving aircraft to a position from which they can continue their

final approach In aeronautics, the final approach (also called the final leg and final approach leg) is the last leg in an aircraft's approach to landing, when the aircraft is lined up with the runway and descending for landing.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of ...

to land under the guidance of an approach procedure published by the

FAA The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

.FAA Order JO 7110.65Z - Air Traffic Control
chapter 5, "Radar", section 6 "Vectoring"
Effective: December 2, 2021. FAA National Headquarters (FOB−10B) Publications & Administration (AJV-P12), Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration. Retrieved March 24, 2022. Vectoring is the provision of navigational guidance to aircraft in the form of specific headings, based on the use of an ATS surveillance system. Aircraft may be vectored to: * apply ATS surveillance system separation * achieve an expeditious flow of aircraft * maximise use of available airspace * comply with

noise abatement Noise control or noise mitigation is a set of strategies to reduce noise pollution or to reduce the impact of that noise, whether outdoors or indoors. Overview The main areas of noise mitigation or abatement are: transportation noise control, ...

procedures * avoid areas of known hazardous weather or known severe

turbulence In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is fluid motion characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to a laminar flow, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers, with no disruption between ...

. * adjust the arrival sequence * establish the aircraft on final approach track of a pilot-interpreted approach * maneuver an aircraft into a suitable position below the clouds near an aerodrome for a

visual approach A visual approach is an approach to a runway at an airport conducted under instrument flight rules (IFR) but where the pilot proceeds by visual reference and clear of clouds to the airport. The pilot must at all times have either the airport or t ...

and landing. The nature of Terminal area operations means that vectoring plays a significant part in the way controllers' process traffic.

References

Air traffic control Air navigation Navigational aids {{aviation-stub