View Full Version : A vote of thanks to the Notams team
Many thanks to rustle, mrcross and rod1 who put in such a lot of time and effort to improve the availability of Notams. Standing offer to each of you of free upside-down flying and (then) beer. I have probably missed someone off the list, for which: apologies, and the same offer.
FlyingForFun
18th Mar 2003, 16:02
Hear hear!
FFF
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AerBabe
18th Mar 2003, 16:04
From me too. And probably the folks at Cov who will be fed up with me asking to photocopy theirs... :)
Completely agree FNG. Their collective efforts are above and beyond the call...
:ok:
Fly Stimulator
18th Mar 2003, 16:13
Seconded :ok:
:ok: :D
Much more use than my MP... :)
Circuit Basher
18th Mar 2003, 17:23
THANK YOU TO THE PPRUNE AIS ACTION TEAM!!!
Before you guys did your bit, NOTAMS were :yuk:
Now, they're :ok:
Hopefully in a few months time, they'll be :cool: and you'll be able to :zzz:
Dusty_B
18th Mar 2003, 17:26
Good Show Chaps!
:)
Lowtimer
18th Mar 2003, 17:55
Agreed. Well done chaps, you've done us proud.
Kolibear
18th Mar 2003, 20:46
A big & very sincere Thank You
Mike Cross
19th Mar 2003, 08:14
You're very kind chaps and chapesses.
Russell and I will be at the Duxford bash on 5 April and hope to see some of you there. As Russell will be P1 I shall be forced to drink the beer on his behalf!
The briefs on http://www.nats.co.uk/operational/pibs/index.shtml are a start but there is still some distance to go.
Within the next few weeks we should see a return to geographic ordering of the NOTAM. At the same time you should be able to download a geographically ordered brief from http://www.ais.org.uk
The difference will be that the NATS site brief will be updated twice a day but the AIS site brief will be generated live for you, in other words it will be bang up to date. It will be a "one click" brief. You won't have to fill in the web form as you do now.
Also to come is the same brief being available for fax download for those sites without Internet access.
There is work going on to try and eliminate some of the browser compatibility issues by simplifying the AIS site's construction.
Once these major issues are sorted further work will take place to clear up minor irritations and niggles.
UK AIS have acknowledged the shortcomings and are working hard to fix them, we hope to see more good news over the next few weeks.
Mike Cross
QDMQDMQDM
19th Mar 2003, 22:19
Thanks from me too. Great job.
QDM
maggioneato
20th Mar 2003, 08:19
I have done my share of griping in the past. Thanks from me as well. :D
Thanks people, we will stay on the case.
I will be at the Duxford bash on 5 April so I hope to meet up with some of you. I will be flying G-BXTT an AA5 from Tatenhill.
See you there.
Rod
Alas, there is no beer at Duxford, but I will stand any of you a disgusting cream bun from the authentic austerity style canteen (don't forget your ration books), and then take you aerobatic (we use the best quality barf bags nicked from BMI)
LowNSlow
20th Mar 2003, 13:49
Well done those men, see you all at Duxford.
I promised some time frames.
The full IFR list is now available on the NATS main server.
Thales is sending over a “task force” in the first week of April. The FAX and “one button brief” should both be sorted during this week. AIS will have to test things and then make them live. If the Thales stuff works, things will be live by the second week of April.
One slight word of caution, the changes could bring the whole thing crashing down, but that would never happen, would it…
I have also chased the CAA on the Q code and hope to get some feedback soon, but nothing to report as yet.
Rod
PFA representative to AIS
Timothy
24th Mar 2003, 16:32
I used them for the first time in a while on Sunday and must say that I could find little to complain about (only that I still have to log on and the navigation is a little long-winded in places.)
So well done all of you. I wonder if NATS waited for a lull in the IT market to launch this product so that they could take advantage of loads of free consultancy from resting IT pros :D
I guess that Pilatus will be along shortly to add his thanks and congrats!
W
rustle
24th Mar 2003, 19:59
Thanks :O
mrcross has it all wrong if he thinks he's going to drink all my beer, firstly because we aren't drinking at Duxford, and secondly because no-one drinks my beer ;)
WC, what lull in the IT market ;)
I doubt we'll hear from Mr/Ms Pilatus again, we haven't had that pleasure for ages :rolleyes:
Flyin'Dutch'
25th Mar 2003, 05:30
Folks,
Thanks for helping to get it sorted, and I think to NATS as well to be willing to listen. Not all government agencies are so receptive.
The powers that are get quite a lot of flak on these forums, some of that may well be justified. However time after time I am pleasantly surprised by their positive attitude to try and solve problems.
Those who can't agree with that will have to get more exposure to the healthservice and education.
Is there something left to complain about? Well not really although a truly narrow briefing would be nice and a graphical presentation would be wonderful.
FD
rustle
25th Mar 2003, 07:04
FD "Is there something left to complain about?..."
You and I are going to have to co-ordinate a bit better ;)
I know it seems impossible, but we're only just now approaching the availability of NOTAM data as it was on August 5th 2002.
(e.g. the ability to download PIBs from the NATS website (www.nats.co.uk) without logging-on)
When the one-click downloads are available (sorted) it will be a move forward (Thales for delivery)
When the Q-Line XML/CSV download is available it will be a move forward (CAA for decision)
When the "AIP online" is searchable it will be a move forward.
I do agree that the AIS staff, who were lumbered with the shortcomings of the new system, have bent over backwards to try and assist and to push through the necessary "fixes"...
FlyingForFun
25th Mar 2003, 08:50
FD, Thanks... to NATS as well to be willing to listen. Not all government agencies are so receptive.Quite right - very well said. Except that isn't NATS now a private company? In which case they deserve even more credit for providing a much-needed service free of charge - not too many private companies willing to do that, especially when they're very unlikely to see much indirect financial gain from it either, if any at all. Well done!
FFF
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Mike Cross
25th Mar 2003, 09:32
True NATS are now a private company, however they operate under the NATS En-Route Licence (NERL (http://www.caa.co.uk/erg/ergdocs/nerllicence.pdf)) under which, broadly speaking, they are required to provide all of the services that were in the AIP at the time of privatisation. The funding that they receive therefore allows for the provision of the NOTAM service.
The whole point of bringing in the new system was to reduce head-count at AIS by automating the process. As always the attempt to translate the common sense, expertise and judgement of skilled personnel into a set of rules that can be followed by a computer program has not gone smoothly, hence the complaints.
Rustle's not quite accurate. Once the new one-button briefs are available (expected mid April), THEN we will be back to the situation of last August by having a geographically sorted standard brief like the old A8.
Ian Bennett has got NotamPro (http://www.notampro.com) working again. Ian Fallon is changing jobs and hasn't had a chance to work on NotamPlot (http://www.notamplot.flyer.co.uk) yet.
However these programs continue to work by parsing the text in the FIR brief in order to give a graphical map-based display, as does Alt AIS (http://www.altais.org.uk)
We continue to press the CAA to agree to the release of a download in a database format, including the "Q Line" (http://www.telecall.uk.com/ais/More_NOTAM.htm) which will allow these programs, and others that may be written in the future to operate in a potentially more robust and accurate way. NATS have already stated that they have no objection to the release of the data.
Mike Cross
Representing AOPA
Edited by Mike to correct faulty hyperlinks