What does short final mean?

If you have heard a pilot or a controller say "short final", you heard the name for the last part of a landing. The phrase is used on the radio, in airport observation decks and in flight training, and it is also the name of our game, Short Final, which is built around that moment.

This guide explains what the term means, what the aircraft and the crew are doing during those last miles, and what can go wrong. It does not replace training or an airline's procedures. It is here to make the radio calls and the game's approaches easier to follow.

The short answer

Short final is the final straight leg of an approach to landing. The aircraft is lined up with the runway, usually on the extended centreline, and it is descending toward the runway threshold, the painted line where the landing area begins. "Final" means the last leg. "Short" means the aircraft is close to the runway, often only a few miles out.

The FAA's Pilot/Controller Glossary defines the final approach for instrument flights as the flight path of an aircraft inbound to an airport on a final instrument approach course, beginning at the final approach fix or point and extending to the airport. That is the formal version of the same idea. FAA Pilot/Controller Glossary, letter F

Controllers also ask pilots about distance. They may say "report five miles final", so the crew can tell the tower how far the aircraft is from the runway and how far it still has to go.

How the approach builds up

A landing is not one move. The aircraft comes down in stages, and each stage hands over to the next.

• Arrival. The aircraft flies along a published route toward the airport, often following a standard arrival route that controllers can shorten or change.
• Initial and intermediate approach. Air traffic control sets the speed, heading and altitude. The crew slows, configures the wings for low speed and lines up with the runway's approach path.
• Final approach. The aircraft is lined up and descending toward the runway. This is short final.
• Landing. The aircraft crosses the threshold, flares, and touches down in the touchdown zone.

On an airport with an instrument landing system (ILS), the approach is guided by two radio beams. One gives left and right alignment, the localizer. The other gives height, the glide path. A standard glide path is about 3 degrees, which works out to roughly 300 feet of descent for every nautical mile flown. The crew sees this on their instruments, and the picture is much simpler than a steep dive: a plane on the glide path is coming down gently, at a steady rate, toward a point ahead of the runway.

What the crew does on short final

On short final the crew is busy. The aircraft is slow, close to the ground and aligned with a runway that is getting bigger in the windscreen. Most of their work follows a simple checklist.

Alignment. Small corrections keep the aircraft on the centreline or the glide path. A crosswind means the crew adjusts the heading, so the aircraft tracks straight down the runway while pointing slightly into the wind.

Speed. The aircraft slows to its landing speed and holds it within a narrow range. Flaps and landing gear are extended, which adds drag and lift at low speed.

Stability. Airlines and safety bodies expect an approach to be stable by a set height above the airport. SKYbrary, the aviation safety knowledge base, gives the baseline as 1,000 feet above airport elevation in instrument conditions and 500 feet in visual conditions. By then the aircraft should be on the correct path, close to the target speed, in its landing configuration, with a sink rate of no more than about 1,000 feet a minute. If it is not stable, the crew must go around. SKYbrary: Stabilised Approach

Go-around. A go-around, sometimes called a missed approach, means the aircraft climbs away and tries again. It is routine. Crews practise it, and controllers expect it. Many go-arounds happen because another aircraft is still on the runway, the wind changes, or the approach is not stable.

Why the approach matters so much

Most of a flight's risk is concentrated at the start and the end. Final approach is where a plane is closest to the ground, where speed is lowest and where the crew has the least room to recover. That is why airports keep traffic apart, why controllers give each arrival a clear runway, and why a stable approach is the rule rather than the goal.

Controllers help by spacing aircraft. When traffic is heavy, an aircraft may be told to follow another one, "number two, follow the Boeing", so the gap stays safe. Heavy jets leave a wake of turbulent air behind them, so controllers keep extra space behind them as well. The next guide in this series, on how air traffic control works, explains how that spacing is built up from departure to landing.

Short final in Short Final

In our game you draw a path from each plane to a runway. The runway's active end has arrows on it, and you finish the path there, roughly lined up. When the path is good enough it locks on with a chime, and the plane follows it down.

San Francisco, the airport the demo opens, is on its own page with its runways. The game is simpler than a real approach, on purpose. There is no glide slope to fly, and no checklist. What it keeps is the shape of the task: a plane must reach the right end of the right runway, lined up and at a sensible angle, while you keep every other plane clear. Some planes are heavy and need a long runway. Others are light and can use a shorter one. The game shows which runways suit which aircraft, with colours.

What to remember

• Short final is the last straight leg of a landing, lined up with the runway and coming down toward it.
• A typical glide path is about 3 degrees, or roughly 300 feet of descent per mile.
• A stable approach is required by a set height. If it is not stable, the crew goes around, which is routine.
• Spacing on final is managed by controllers, and wake turbulence adds extra gaps behind heavy jets.

Sources

• FAA Pilot/Controller Glossary, letter F (final approach)
• SKYbrary: Stabilised Approach
• FAA Air Traffic Control handbook, JO 7110.65
• SKYbrary, the aviation safety knowledge base