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GlossaryAircraft Systems
Aircraft Systems

Wake Turbulence

Also: wingtip vortices

The rotating cores of air, or wingtip vortices, shed by a wing producing lift; they sink and drift, so pilots stay above and upwind of a preceding heavy aircraft's path.

“Wingtip vortices that are created when an airplane generates lift.”
FAA-H-8083-25C · Glossary, Wake turbulence

Tested on

Private PilotCommercialATP

Related terms

Runway Incursion

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