The french touch to your guess. .. .MI stands for "Mince", thin in english. .BC is "Banc", stands for patches. .BR is "Brume" stands for mist. .. .MI is normally associated with FG, Fog, as is BC. .. .Hope it helps. .. .Northern sky, I am sorry to inform you that you are wrong on the national glossaries. .. .Transponder is called transpondeur in french, and is not a "frenchisation" of any english word. .. .Autothrottle equivalent is Automanette. .. .HSI will be called "plateau de route". .. .Few years ago, one of the culture minister wanted french to use only french words in official documentation, He had to "invent" some new words where translation was impossible ! That was funny.. .. .I concede that a lot of english/american terms are used in aviation (like FMC & FMS) but I think it deals more with the fact that a lot of french pilots are doing Type Rating overseas.. . . . <small>[ 18 March 2002, 16:40: Message edited by: PorcoRosso ]</small>