Section 2. CONTRACTIONS1-2-1. DEFINITION A contraction is a word, title, or phrase represented in shortened form for the purpose of brevity. Contractions facilitate communication and thus are a vital part of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) everyday communications process. 1-2-2. USE OF CONTRACTIONS a. Contractions lend freedom to communication(s) in general correspondence. Without them, written communication becomes cumbersome. b. Contractions save space on telegraphic circuits, tabulating and computer equipments, charts, drawings and reports. c. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is the focal point for world-wide use in the international aeronautical community. d. Standard ICAO abbreviations and codes are to be used, wherever possible. These are available in ICAO document 8400. 1-2-3. RULES FOR DEVELOPING CONTRACTIONS To form or use contractions, the following rules shall apply: a. Signs and symbols included as part of a contraction are limited to those available on FAA communications equipment. b. Contractions composed of both upper and lower case letters cannot be used in telegraphic communications. c. In some cases, a contraction may include letter and number combinations. d. A contraction should retain an alphabetical similarity to the longer word or phrase. e. Three-character contractions are no longer to be coined due to possible conflict with Location Identifiers in an automated and voice response environment. f. Words of five letters or less are not to be contracted. g. Excessively long contractions will not be adopted. h. Prepositions, conjunctions, and articles should be omitted in forming contractions. The slant may be substituted, if necessary. i. A pronounceable word should be attained, if possible, when contracting a phrase. j. Abbreviations that are unique to a particular publication shall not be listed in this order. k. A contraction may have more than one meaning. There are four different categories which constitutes this rational. These categories are air traffic, general, meteorological (weather) and international aeronautics (ICAO). l. In cases where a contraction may be unfamiliar to the recipient, spell out the word or phrase the first time it is used and follow it with the contraction in parenthesis. m. Contractions stated should read fluently with the remainder of the text. If questionable, the recipient should refer back to the originator. n. The contractions in this order may normally be used for any derivative of the root word. If confusion would otherwise result, variations may be shown by adding the following letters to the contraction of the root word:
1-2-4. RECOMMENDATIONS REGARDING CONTRACTIONS Requests for new contractions, changes, or deletion of obsolete ones may be submitted by the simplest means possible (e.g. Route Slip) to FAA Headquarters, System Operations Services/System Operations Airspace and AIM Office, 800 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20591. Recommendations shall include a description of the need for a proposed contraction and the frequency of its use.
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