Flight leg

Flight leg is a segment of a flight plan, i.e. flight path between two waypoints.

Simply put, a flight leg is a segment of a journey by a plane from one landing site to another.

On a return journey each direction could be considered a leg. On a multi-stop journey it could be take-off/landing to the next. In a one-stop flight it could be from one waypoint to the next.

In landing the process is made up of several parts, each considered one 'leg'.

When travelling via one or more intermediate stops on the voyage, each landing and subsequent take-off is considered the end of one leg and the commencement of another. Sometimes the pilot And Co-pilot will swap over for each new leg, so as to give each other a rest.

One a straight through (no stopovers) flight, the term "flying leg" can be considered to mean the journey between two significant waypoints on the journey. For instance, if flying from Sydney Domestic Airport (SYD) to Johannesberg Airport, there is often at least one leg over mainland Australia, one or two over the Indian Ocean, and one over the South African airspace.

When landing at an airport, the air traffic control will usually direct the incoming aircraft into a flight pattern. This flight pattern consists of legs, and is used to regulate the airspace used by each plane in its waiting to land. Subsequently, when landing, the aircraft is given another pattern of 'legs' to use in landing. These landing patterns are usually consisting of five legs.

• Adapted from the Dictionary for the Avionics Domain Architecture Generation Environment of the Domain-Specific Software Architecture Project by Mark Goodwin and Lou Coglianese, IBM Federal Systems Company, Owego NY (DSSA Document number ADAGE-ABM-92-04).

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