Overview
My apologies for the clickbait title. We live in the world where attention is a currency, but probably, the reason why you are here is that you don’t feel comfortable with the existing NOTAM system. I don’t know why exactly you struggle with it, however, there are certain things that are not right in it and not only you have noticed them.
I think there is nothing wrong with the fact, that most of us have asked these questions. Recently I did an internet research on that so here is what I found…
There are potentially 3 major reasons, why most of private/commercial pilots struggle with NOTAMs…
NOTAM's ugly format
- Uses too many abbreviations, instead of plain language
- Uses capital letters to pass the message, so it’s inappropriate for the way we prioritize words when reading
- Does not cointain any graphic data presentation which is easier to assimilate, istead still uses ITA-2 alphabet, which was found even before ASKI
Trash info surrounding cruicial notices
Don’t get me wrong here. Every NOTAM information is somehow important for us. It’s always better to know stuff then not. But when it comes to judging NOTAM system (which prime function is to pass information „timely knowledge of which is essential to personnel and systems concerned with flight operations”) the research shows that it doesn’t do well., beacause cruicial notices are not exposed enough. Most of pilots appear to often miss critical flight information when scrolling through their NOTAM briefing package.. I found a speaking for itself survey conducted by OPS Group, and you can find all the data in it. (Check https://fixingnotams.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/International-NOTAM-Survey-Report-2020-OPSGROUP.pdf).
When I asked myself why, this these examples turned out to be the best answears:
Source: Field Guide to NOTAMs
I genuinely recommend to get familiar with the pdf file linked up there (Field Guide to NOTAMs). You may find it amusing, but it truly clarifies what’s wrong with the system, and gives you the real live examples.
The whole trash notam issues start to seriuosly matter when ICAO provides us with this information…
So when you’re landing on a large international airport you may miss some of the cruicial informations that apply to your flight, like runway closure. But don’t worry. You already went into detail, whether the bird you might see near the airport is a painted stork, or billed stork.
Old NOTAMs still staying your briefing package
The ICAO Annex 15 states that “a NOTAM shall be originated and issued promptly whenever the information to be distributed is of a temporary nature and of short duration” (6.3.2.2) whereas “temporary changes of long duration (three months or longer) … shall be published as AIP Supplements” (6.3.1.3).
To confront the realities, these are official ICAO world NOTAM’s age anylysis. (Snapshot at 2021-08-01)
Current – less than 3 months
Old – more than three months, less than 1
year
Very old – more than 1 year
Not very good, huh?
The NOTAM system didn’t really follow all the world’s rapid changes, (especially increasing number of airspace users), but we, as pilots, dispatchers and whoever you are, we have to adapt for now. There has been too many incidents due to NOTAM missunderstanding, or invalid critical information exposure. It’s easy to find them in the internet and I genuinely recommend to read about AirCanada flight 759 or Malaysia17.
What can help?
Decoding NOTAMs tutorial requires another article about it. However, as I dove into understanding the whole thing, there was some fundamental facts I didn’t know in the beggining. As it’s better to take a closer look on it with some primary knowledge, I thaught you may find it usefull too. Take a look…
How many NOTAM’s formats are there? Which one should I learn?
Wherever you are in the world, you have to know that there is something called ICAO NOTAM, which is standard, universal format used in all the member states of ICAO. Except that, some countries have their own domestic NOTAM format, as e.g. FAA NOTAM, which differs a bit from the ICAO NOTAM. Canada used to operate with it’s own domestic format too, but some time ago they decided to switch to the ICAO one. So if one day you search for NOTAMs in FAA NOTAM Search don’t feel confused if the format doesn’t meet your expectations. Just learn the ICAO one, or your own country’s domestic format if you have one. Offcourse it is neccessary for international pilots to learn the ICAO format first.
Where am I officially supposed to check NOTAMs?
When it comes to flight information, you want to be sure that you have the actual notices, and didn’t miss any of them. During my PPL(A) flight training I asked some of the instructors where should I check actual NOTAMs for my flight. Most of the answears were: FAA Notam Search. Is it right? Each country has it’s own ANSP (Air Navigation Service Provider) which delivers actual NOTAMs for each country, and FAA is nothing more than USA’s domestic ANSP. So when you fly in Europe, why should I check NOTAMs in US national agencies that has nothing to do with my flight. That’s why e.g. DINS (Defense internet NOTAM service) provided us with this note.
So I’d rather suggest checking NOTAMs staright from ICAO (international flights), or from your national ANSP. Third party applications (e.g. Foreflight) do well too, but it’s not an official place where you should search for them.
Where do I check the abbreviation meaning?
All the abbreviations are not a secret code, they can be easily found in PANS-ABC (Doc 8400). What is more, you country should even have the document officially translated to your national language. Just search for „PANS-ABC (Doc 8400)” in Google, and you should find it even before the ICAO original document in English.
As it’s easy to find them using even [ctrl+F] on your computer, it’s always faster to remember some of the most common ones. To make it easier for you I extracted them and you can have them always nearby with my „Compact NOTAM decoder” which I recently designed. You can sigh up with your email in the footer of my website (LINK). I will send you the file instantly. Moreover you will receive useful links and sources with some extra content which will probably attract you a lot. Don’t be afraid of spam, and trash info sent just to keep in touch. I will do my best to make it as solid as possible, and send you only valuable information.
