ground-con·trolled approach

(ground′kən-trōld′)

A technique in which an air traffic controller uses specialized radar to track an airplane's approach and continuously provide verbal directions to the pilot.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Noun

ground-controlled approach - aircraft landing in bad weather in which the pilot is talked down by ground control using precision approach radar

GCA

aircraft landing, airplane landing - landing an aircraft

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References in periodicals archive

After completing the mission, he turned for homeplate, contacted approach control and requested a radar-controlled letdown to ground-controlled approach (GCA).

Grampaw Petti bone: Gramps from Yesteryear: September 1967

Although the weather at Corpus International was better than the weather at Navy Corpus, there was no ground-controlled approach. With a failed RMI, there was no way for me to execute a TACAN approach.

Ok, now it's an emergency

For readers not attuned to aviation, the author's discussion of the intricacies of aerobatic flight maneuvers and the technical aspects of cross-country flights--including instrument-landing systems, nondirectional beacons, and ground-controlled approach radar--may seem too detailed.

A Reckless Grace: An Account of Pilots and Their Planes from the Jennys to the Jets

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