Aeronautical Glossary

It is the International Civil Aviation Organization that, through its conventions, standardizes civil aviation so that there is free air circulation throughout the world with the same safety standards.

It is the European Aviation Safety Agency that issues the regulations for general and commercial aviation that all European states, plus others that have joined the agreements, must respect.

It is the National Civil Aviation Authority that regulates general and commercial aviation in Italy, as well as managing airport infrastructure.

It is the national aeroclub that associates all the Italian aeroclubs, non-profit organizations whose task is to spread the aeronautical culture. The AeCI is also the delegate of ENAC to manage the normative and control and regulation part of the world of recreational sport flight.

It includes everything in aviation that can be defined as “for fun” and not for profit. Some call them “amateur” activities, but that is not true, because even a private pilot, in his own small way, must think and behave like a professional when he arrives at the airport, gets out of the car and goes into the air.

It is everything in aviation that has a profit-making purpose: scheduled flights, non-scheduled flights, aerial work, helicopter rescue, firefighting, flight schools… Any activity for which a commercial contract is perfected in which the customer pays a fee for a service.

The EASA definition includes “Commercial Air Transport” (CAT) and “Special Operations” (SPO), forgetting the flight schools that technically follow the NCO/NCC regulations which by definition would be “non-commercial”, even though they are profit-making activities.

It has the same prerogative as general aviation but with ultralight motorized vehicles under a certain weight or without motor (free flight). It is regulated directly by the individual States, normally delegating management to the national aeroclub.

Private operations are those that are part of general aviation, even if EASA also includes flight schools. This division is misleading because from a legal and administrative point of view, schools are also for-profit activities. EASA then distinguishes private operations in NCO (Non Commercial Other than complex) and NCC (Non Commercial Complex) to differentiate the aircraft used.

“Validity” is the period between obtaining a rating and its first expiration or between subsequent renewals and their subsequent expirations. If I obtain or renew a type rating today, its validity will be 12 months.
Being “current” means being within the validity period of a rating (current on type, IFR current, etc.).
If I renew a rating that has not yet expired (I am current) through the minimum required activity combined with a flight with an instructor or the proficiency check or assessment of competence (depends on the renewal method chosen and the rating to be renewed) carried out before the expiration, it is called “revalidation” because the validity periods are consecutive and have no “holes” in between. If I exceed the deadline even by just one day, even if I have done the minimum activity, but not the check or the training flight or the assessment of competence, then my renewal is called “renewal” and I cannot call an examiner to request the check “privately”, but I must go to a school that will produce a training program before presenting the candidate to the examiner (if it expired recently and the minimum activity has been done, but I have not managed to schedule the check within the deadline, there will be no additional training activity, but it will still be the HT of a school to put it down in black and white).

To learn more, see the wiki page dedicated to type rating and class rating.