Originally Posted by
43Inches
I agree with major airport NOTAMs, but country airports will only have one or two, easy to sift through by just NAIPS searching the few you are using.
Major airports should segregate NOTAM into critical areas, such as grouping them into movement area, approach and aid related, tower and ATS related, obstacle, lighting and misc.
An issue that concerns me with the current NOTAM system is many people are assuming if they pull up the NOTAMs for an aerodrome they will get all they need.
eg if you call up MOUNT ISA (YBMA) today you will get 3 NOTAMs (declared distance, an infringing obstacle and an issue with radio reception).
What is *not* displayed is the following NOTAM which could be of interest to you if you are operating around Mt Isa:
LOW LEVEL GEOPHYSICAL SVY ACFT OPR
WI 74 NM RADIUS OF MOUNT ISA AD (YBMA)
IN AN AREA BOUNDED BY: BRG 338 MAG 50NM FM ARP, BRG 328 MAG 55NM FM
ARP, BRG 327 MAG 61NM FM ARP, BRG 338 MAG 74NM FM ARP, BRG 342 MAG
72NM FM ARP, BRG 344 MAG 59NM FM ARP
ACFT TYPE: AS350 WI UNDERSLUNG ARRAY CALLSIGN: VH-VIM
OPR CTC TEL: 0439 982 692
ACFT WILL MNT LOCAL FREQ
SFC TO 4500FT AGL
FROM 10 292100 TO 12 221000
DAILY 2100/1000
You have to specifically ask for (and scan through) the Brisbane FIR NOTAMs to get that. Basically NOTAMs for half the continent.
(NB this just one example - the specific FIR NOTAM above may or may not be important to you if you are going to Mt Isa but my point is just calling up an aerodrome may not give you everything about that strip.)
The FIR NOTAMs are often pages of data and cover the whole country making it easy to miss the needles in the haystacks.
eg today with Mel FIR you will have info on everything from a swarm of drones in WA to an aerobatic competition at Bacchus Marsh (YBSS) in Vic. (BTW if you call up YBSS by itself, you will be told that YBSS doesn't have a NOTAM service and so no mention of the aerobatic activity).
INCREASED AVIATION ACT WI 3NM OF BACCHUS MARSH AD (YBSS)
DUE AEROBATIC TRAINING EVENT.
AEROBATICS WILL TAKE PLACE OHD AD AND WILL REMAIN CLEAR OF CONTROLLED
AIRSPACE. GND COM STN CS 'BACCHUS MARSH ADVISORY' ESTABLISHED ON
COMMON TFC ADVISORY FREQ (CTAF) 118.8 DURING AEROBATIC OPS.
ACFT CONDUCTING AEROBATICS MAY NOT BE MONITORING CTAF.
ORGANISER CTC TEL: 0448 886 863
SFC TO 4500FT AMSL
FROM 10 292300 TO 10 300900
...
...
UA SWARM (UP TO 200 MULTICOPTERS BELOW 2KG) OPR WI 1.2NM OF PSN
322041S 1154651E (LAKE WALYUNGUP) WESTERN AUSTRALIA
OPR WILL BCST ON FREQ 135.25 15 MIN PRIOR TO LAUNCH AND AT 15 MIN
INTERVALS WHILST AIRBORNE
OPR WILL MNT PH CEN FREQ 135.25
OPR CTC TEL: 041 095 3282 OR 0402 577 537
SFC TO 400FT AGL
FROM 08 040000 TO 11 051600
DAILY 0000/1600
It would be great if the NOTAM system could allow you to filter relevant NOTAMs based on route, not everything for Australia.