Lets start with airport codes. When landing at an airport a pilot might say, “we have begun or decent into JFK.” Meaning that he is landing at Idle wild airport or in other terms, John F. Kennedy airport. When a pilot says he needs to stop for an emergency at LAX does not mean he needs laxative, it means that he is landing at Los Angeles Airports. You can usually guess what the three letter FAA code stand for, but sometimes, in the cases of Toronto (YYZ), O’Hare (ORD) which commemorates Orchard Field, or Osaka (KIX). Now at this point things have to get humorous, Sioux City asked the FAA to change their name from SUX to something not as dirty. Not like the Finns, the Syrians, and the Japanese mind. Helsinki’s international airport has he three letter code HEL. When landing in Damascus expect to see signs saying DAM all over the place. At Fukuoka, well you might have already guessed, FUK will be your destination. Most people or at least I would try to avoid flying from FUK-DAM-HEL.

When zooming down the runway you see those signs with numbers. You cannot help to wonder what it is. Theses signs represent how many meters are left on the runway for the plane to use. At JFK’s runway 13R-31L, do not be surprised to see the numbers 6000 and 5000 go by while you are still in the air. Other signs around the runways stand for the runway numbers and the signals needed for the control tower.

Special Thanks to Patrick Smith and Ask The Pilot.