Reading the AIM
The Aeronautical Information Manual put out by the FAA has lots of interesting stuff, however, it’s not an especially engrossing read. And there is a lot of information that you already know, that doesn’t apply to general aviation pilots, or that is poorly written and needs further explanation. This post is the first of many that quote from the AIM, summarize it, and add personal experience or the experiences from others to highlight the information.
So let’s start off with a quote from the AIM about its purpose:
This manual is designed to provide the aviation community with basic flight information and ATC procedures for use in the National Airspace System (NAS) of the United States. An international version called the Aeronautical Information Publication contains parallel information, as well as specific information on the international airports for use by the international community.
This manual contains the fundamentals required in order to fly in the United States NAS. It also contains items of interest to pilots concerning health and medical facts, factors affecting flight safety, a pilot/controller glossary of terms used in the ATC System, and information on safety, accident, and hazard reporting.
And this is an important point about the AIM.
This publication, while not regulatory, provides information which reflects examples of operating techniques and procedures which may be requirements in other federal publications or regulations. It is made available solely to assist pilots in executing their responsibilities required by other publications.
So the AIM itself is not regulatory but it does explain regulations. When it does explain regulations from the Code of Federal Regulations Title 14 (CFRs are also referred to as the Federal Aviation Regulations—FARs) I will often quote the underlying regulation and give you enough information to find it (e.g. §91.3 Responsibility and authority of the pilot in command.) but not give a link to it.
The FAA (and the Federal Government as a whole) frequently changes the location of the documents on its website. Therefore I won’t be providing links, since they don’t last, but instead will provide the title of the document or the section of the AIM that is relevant. FAA Documents, Orders,and Advisory Circulars are frequently revised and standard practice is to append a letter to the end of the document title to indicate the revision. e.g. Instrument Flying Handbook FAA-H-8083-15B. I’ll include the letter so you know which version I am quoting but, when searching, you should omit it so that you get the most recent version. At the moment, you can find most publications by starting at this page, but that link may change.