NOTAMS: The Majestic, Endangered Species on the Verge of Collapse

Fernando wrote:

Is this NOTAM dislike a US-centric issue?

No, they are disliked universally – NOTAMs are sh*t everywhere.

Is this NOTAM dislike a US-centric issue?

Usually NOTAM = “hassle & bad news”, how on earth one like these? I never read a NOTAM that sate “PPR is not required, AVGAS is available, restaurant is open and park where you wish”

You can measure how welcoming a place by the count of AD NOTAMS, if it’s 35 entry you are not going to like going there…

I managed to get free time to go flying but cancelled plans for LFAT as airport is closed by NOTAM, I hate these NOTAM !

NTSB says “NOTAMS are just a pile of garbage”

chflyer wrote:

NTSB says “NOTAMS are just a pile of garbage”

@chflyer, good point – first time I heard that quote I though that I’m not sure if it is funny or sad.

Ibra wrote:

Usually NOTAM = “hassle & bad news”, how on earth one like these?

@Ibra, the point is not the fact that there are bad news, but they are mostly completely irrelevant to about 99% of pilots.
If you fly a fixed wing from Stapleford to Elstree, would you care about a 50-foot crane at Luton? No, because it is a) well away from the route and b) well below the altitude I’m legally allowed to fly over Luton. The whole system is screwed…

arj1 wrote:

@Ibra, the point is not the fact that there are bad news, but they are mostly completely irrelevant to about 99% of pilots.
If you fly a fixed wing from Stapleford to Elstree, would you care about a 50-foot crane at Luton? No, because it is a) well away from the route and b) well below the altitude I’m legally allowed to fly over Luton. The whole system is screwed…

And certainly not interested, for a flight from Switzerland via Germany to Austria in my lowly C172, about the need for a negative PCR test for arrivals from PRC (China) or about the hazardous situation in FIR Yangon (Miranmar). One could debate about the need for Covid-19 information, but the 5 page Covid-19 NOTAM could easily take 20 minutes alone just to understand all the convoluted wording, qualifications, exceptions, etc.

A 99 mile point brief for an airfield in Wales, fails to say how close I can fly to the aircraft carrier which is on holiday there – nor even tells me that it is there, but warns me about North Korean missile tests over the sea of Japan.

Good video.

Usually NOTAM = “hassle & bad news”, how on earth one like these?

@lbra I do like them! Looking for a flight to Osnabrück last year, the notam told me, that the construction works will be finished a day before my planned landing. So good news! Same when a notam which was valid until a specific date and may cause trouble regarding my plans disappears earlier, again good news. Both are real examples during the last months. Last not least: a closed airfield in Sweden due of bush fires is bad news as long as this is a destination you would like to go to, but being there and being not informed ahead might create even worse news.

In general speaking. Most of the displayed notam are irrelevant regarding my flight missions, but from time to time they are. So I take it as a task to have a look on them and won’t get angry when reading “bad news”.

I’ve been involved in briefing platforms which had one major problem, to filter NOTAMs properly.

While my role was on the Met side, I had close contact with the people who tried valiantly to figure out ways to filter NOTAMS into “smart briefings” where everything “needed” would be displayed and everything else suppressed.

Of course, the problem with that is pretty straightforward:

• Suppress the wrong NOTAM and YOU are guilty of withholding information to an aircrew possibly causing an accident.
• Not filter thoroughly enough, you piss off the people who haved to contend with 20 pages of NOTAMS for a 10 minute VFR flight.

So guess which part gets more attention. Hence, filtering out NOTAMS which have any form of relevance from the irrelevant remains with the pilots or dispatchers. And because of the flood of NOTAMS which nobody can actually manage anymore, it is pretty common that the relevant information gets lost in the clutter.

One of the guys working on this project said it was pretty similar of working on spam filters for e-mails. More often than not the valid stuff ends up deleted and the spam goes through anyhow.

I think one part of the solution will be to relegate lots of those notams (obstacles for instance) to graphic representation on EFB’s. that is where they are really relevant, not in tens of pages of text, where nobody will plot them anyway. Same goes for airspace restrictions, this stuff belongs onto a graphic representation (one of the better ones is the Swiss DABS imho). Show what is active, grey out what is not.

Then sort all the “world wide” NOTAMS such as Covid rules, immigration stuff e.t.c into one section where it can be read diagonally. Leave the relevant stuff so it can be read easily.

But as I said, it is very difficult to do the way NOTAMS are generated now. I reckon the only way to solve most of this once and for all would be to revise the system altogether and divide the flood of information in various products which can be machine read and imported into the EFB’s where they can be filtered and sorted into something readable.

So I take it as a task to have a look on them and won’t get angry when reading “bad news”.

Positive mind set