Originally Posted by
double_barrel
Working on this stuff for impending exams, I can't help wondering why it has to be so obscure. Presumably it was developed to save bandwidth on slow teletype links. But now it rather feels like an initiation ritual
I get that if you are scanning METARs and TAFs everyday, they becomes second nature..............!
You are required to achieve a certain depth and breadth of knowledge in the ATPLs which you just have to learn, but I feel your pain !! Some of the more obscure parts of the ATPL seemed similar to my History lessons at school. Why do I need to know what date Henry the xx died? How will that help me live my life - unless I want to be a history teacher !!
Spot on about the limited bandwidth originally requiring coded messages, but as you say, when you have to add some number to indicate a parallel runway or whatever, it gets silly - especially in 2019 now that larger data rates are generally available.
NOTAMS certainly need an overhaul. Some sort of priority ordering system is badly needed. Primary NOTAMS, for closed runways, airspace or no fuel; Secondary NOTAMS, for items that will not directly affect a commercial, planned flight.
As it is now: after pages and pages and pages of NOTAMS, it is easy to miss the fact that French airspace will be closed after 0100z owing to a strike !