PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - NOTAMS and why they need to be checked....
Old 10th Sep 2008, 16:56
  #52 (permalink)  
Mike Cross
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Savannah GA & Portsmouth UK
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Now Flymap can give me the above, why not AIS/NATS
Works fine for something with a small radius but how does it cope with something like:-

POWERED PARACHUTE EVENT WILL TAKE PLACE AT WITHIN 15NM RADIUS OF ONE OF THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS. LOCATION WILL BE CHOSEN ACCORDING TO WEATHER CONDITIONS ON THE DAY.

This is one I actually saw, there were 5 geographic locations defined by co-ordinates and the Q Line carried the geographic centre and radius of a circle that would enclose all of the 5x15nm radius circles drawn round the 5 locations.

There's a big problem with graphical deisplay of NOTAM that overlap. For example the chart you show has part of a bit red circle at top left. How for example would it deal with an air display including the Reds somewhere wholly inside that big red circle? There would be at least two NOTAM centred on the a/d. One would be for a RA(T) for the Reds, typically to 8,500 ft and for a half hour period to cover the display. Another would be for the air display for a much longer period and maybe a different radius. You might also get one for a PJE with a different set of parameters if a parachute display was included.

The reason why AIS don't provide it is that the UK is required under the Chicago Convention to provide PIB that comply with the specification set out in Annex 15, which that display does not. Ergo a graphical display would be in addition to and not instead of what is currently provided.

Bear in mind that it is the duty of the State within who's FIR the flight originates to provide the briefing so this isn't used just by UK PPL's it'll also be used for foreign airline and bizjet pilots for their flights outbound from UK. They need something that's in a standardised format they can understand, same applies to TAF & METAR.

DfT funds CAA to meet the Convention obligations and no more. CAA employs NATS to deliver the goods via UK AIS. The official view is that if you want something different to what's available from AIS you're welcome to use any alternative briefing service. Unsurprisingly the commercial briefing services will only provide stuff if it's commercially viable. Flymap is of course a commercial business.
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