Techniques adapted from U.S. Air Force search-and-rescue (SAR) procedures are applied to archaeological survey requirements. Instead of attempting to infer the quantitative properties of a large entity (or population) from the study of a portion (or sample) of that entity in the manner of most archaeological surveys on land, archaeological survey by air covers the total survey area and attempts to control for the reliability of this total coverage in relation to a given level of sampling effort and a variety of constraints. These constraints include ground-related factors such as visibility of preselected archaeological targets, terrain, and vegetation; air-related factors such as cockpit visibility; outside visibility and light; and aircraft speed and stability. A case study of an archaeological survey by air in the Central Desert of Australia in 1981-1982 is used to evaluate the utility of these procedures and to demonstrate the importance of moving from a search mode in the use of aircraft by archaeologists to a survey mode involving scientifically acceptable controls and procedures. -- AATA