No one doubts that the AIS website is much better than it used to be but the usability of the output is still appalling. If the human factors guys ever went to work on it they would condemn it out of hand. The quality control is also appalling.
The one key feature that comes out in my informal questioning of my farm strip friends is the sheer irrelevance of most of it. I am not going to rant, but rather to give a simple example. (Sorry but this is going to be a long post.) This is not hypothetical.
Today I wished to fly from a private strip very close to Southampton Airport to Popham – a distance of about 15 miles. I go to the AIS Notams site and make myself a narrow route briefing VFR up to FL040.
I get 10 Notams for Southampton and five enroute. One of the Southampton ones could just about be marginally useful (though it certainly would not affect the safety of the flight if you did not read it) and there is one temporary class A which is only as important as you consider Prince Charles to be. This is, in my experience entirely typical.
My point is, you almost loose the will to live wading through all the useless junk. Yes, I know about the Chicago Convention, ICAO standards etc. but lets take a long hard look at what we are trying to achieve. Surely it must be possible to separate the essential ones (Reds, RATs and displays) from the procedural.
If you want to look at them I have pasted them below with my comments.
Q) EGTT/QOBAW/IV/M/A/000/999/5105N00113W005
FROM: 08/02/04 13:32 TO: PERM
E) LAND BASED NAVIGATION OBSTACLES AND SOUTHAMPTON AD CHARTS
FOLLOWING SINGLE UNLIT OBSTACLE WITHDRAWN
NAME: HAMPAGE FARM
IDENT: 230C867
TYPE: MAST
LAT: 510432N LONG: 0011319W
AMSL: 757FT AGL: 432FT
ENR 5-4-1-16, AD 2 EGHI-5-1, EGHI-8-1 TO 8-12 REFERS
C0465/08
This one has been in the Notams since February and the fact that the obstacle has been removed serves to show just how useful the Noam ever was…..
Q) EGTT/QFAAH/IV/NBO/A/000/999/5057N00121W005
FROM: 08/03/30 06:30 TO: 08/10/25 22:00
E) SUMMER HRS OF AD OPR
MON-FRI 0530-2130 PPR 2130-2200
SAT 0530-2045 PPR 2045-2200
SUN 0630-2130 PPR 2130-2200
C1009/08
This one has been in the Notams ever since I have been flying (years). It should be in the AIP, not the Notams.
Q) EGTT/QACXX/IV/NBO/A/000/999/5057N00121W005
FROM: 08/03/17 06:30 TO: PERM
E) REF UK AIP AD 2-EGHI 1-11 AD 2.22 FLIGHT PROCEDURES:
ADD NOTE 7 AS FOLLOWS:
PILOTS ARE ADVISED THAT LOWER UPHAM AND ROUGHAY FARM HAVE NOTIFIED
AIRSPACE WITHIN THE SOUTHAMPTON CONTROL ZONE, WITHIN THE ARC OF A
CIRCLE 2NM RAD AT 505615N 0011353W, DAYLIGHT HOURS, SFC-1500FT AMSL.
PILOTS OPR UNDER VFR OR ON A SPECIAL VFR CLEARANCE ARE ADVISED TO
AVOID THIS AREA IF AT ALL POSSIBLE. TRAFFIC INFORMATION WILL NOT BE
PASSED BY ATC
C0856/08
Interesting but…. If you are flying out of the strips concerned you will already know about the contents of the letter of agreement and if not, you will need to call ATC anyway to get and entry clearance. Interesting but ultimately not useful.
Q) EGTT/QMXHW/IV/M/A/000/999/5057N00121W005
FROM: 08/09/01 12:43 TO: 08/12/31 23:59
E) METAL PLATING LOCATED EAST OF HOLDING POINT B1
C3683/08
And the point is? Is this a taxiing hazard? Does it cause a magnetic anomaly? Does it need to be avoided? Can you taxi over it? Useless.
Q) EGTT/QOBCE/IV/M/A/000/999/5057N00121W005
FROM: 08/08/19 11:46 TO: 08/09/19 19:00
E) CRANE OPR 310 DEG (TRUE) 300M FM ARP. MAX WORKING HGT 112FT AMSL.
SCHEDULE: 0530-1900
C3505/08
At 112AMSL(aprox 70AGL) this probably does not even break the safety surface. If you look on the chart and see where the crane is located you will see it is very close to buildings of a similar height. This may be of technical interest for IFR fliers but is of no relevance to VFR
Q) EGTT/QOBCE/IV/M/A/000/999/5057N00121W005
FROM: 08/08/19 07:00 TO: 08/11/28 17:00
E) CRANE OPR 330 DEG TRUE, 3.7KM FM ARP. MAX JIB HGT 279FT AMSL.
C3469/08
At 297AMSL(aprox 190AGL) at 2 miles. Are they having a laugh? Rule 5 and hitting the terrain is all you need to worry about here.
Q) EGTT/QAEXX/IV/NBO/A/000/999/5057N00121W010
FROM: 08/08/28 00:01 TO: PERM
E) REF UK AIP EGHI 5-1 (DATED 28 AUG 08)
AMEND PUBLISHED MSA 2000 TO READ 2300
C3118/08
No relevance to VFR
Q) EGTT/QAEXX/IV/NBO/A/000/999/5057N00121W010
FROM: 08/07/24 10:51 TO: PERM
E) REF UK AIP EGHI 7-1 AND 7-2 (DATED 10 APR 08 AND 28 AUG 08)
AND 8-1 TO 8-12 (DATED 08 MAY 08)
AMEND PUBLISHED MSA NW SECTOR (090-180) TO READ 2300
C3119/08
No relevance to VFR
Q) EGTT/QOBCE/IV/M/A/000/999/5057N00121W005
FROM: 08/07/14 07:00 TO: 08/11/30 17:00
E) CRANE OPR 241 DEG (TRUE) 3200M FM ARP. MAX WORKING HGT 248FT AMSL,
108FT AGL
SCHEDULE: 0700-1700
C2825/08
At 248AMSL at 2 miles. Are they having a laugh? Rule 5 and hitting the terrain is all you need to worry about here.
Q) EGTT/QOBCE/IV/M/A/000/020/5057N00121W005
FROM: 08/07/03 07:45 TO: 08/09/30 19:00
E) CRANE OPR 010 DEG (TRUE), 2900M FM ARP. MAX JIB HGT 186FT AMSL
SCHEDULE: 0730-1900
C2789/08
At 186AMSL at 1.5 miles. Are they having a laugh? Rule 5 and hitting the terrain is all you need to worry about here.
Aerodrome (destination) - EGHP (POPHAM)
NIL
En-Route Information
I am not even going to try and go through these one at a time. With the exception of the temporary Class A not one of these is actually relevant to what I am trying to do. Since when di Doncaster controled airspace and IFR reporting points have any relevance to a VFR flight between Southampton and Popham?
EGTT: LONDON FIR
Q) EGXX/QNATT/IV/NBO/E/000/999/5504N00500W390
FROM: 08/01/01 00:00 TO: 08/12/31 23:59
E) NAVIGATIONAL AID OUTAGES JAN-DEC 2008, AIP SUP S36/2007 REFERS
B2217/07
Q) EGXX/QXXXX/V/BO/E/000/999/5441N00219W483
FROM: 08/07/01 00:00 TO: 08/09/25 23:59
E) ASSIGNMENT OF NEW LOCATION INDICATORS-:
EGEA CULTER HELIPAD
EGMT THURROCK EGTN ENSTONE
EGCR ASHCROFT
EGIA CIVIL AVIATION COMMUNICATION CENTRE (CACC) SCOTLAND AND NI
EGIB CACC WALES
EGIC CACC NW
EGID CACC NE
EGIE CACC MID WEST
EGIF CACC MID EAST
EGIG CACC SW
EGIH CACC SE
B1298/08
Q) EGXX/QAFTT/IV/BO/E/000/999/5441N00219W483
FROM: 08/08/28 00:01 TO: 08/09/11 23:59
E) TRIGGER NOTAM: AIP AMDT AIRAC 9/2008 WEF 28 AUG 2008 PERM
ATS AIRSPACE CLASSIFICATION (CLASS D) DONCASTER SHEFFIELD CONTROL
ZONE/CONTROL AREA INTRODUCED ENR 1-4-5.
LOWER ATS RTE L26 L603 L975 N160 T420 Y70 N160D BASE LVL CHANGES BTN
DIFFERENT SIGNIFICANT POINTS/ INTRODUCTION OF REPORTING POINT ROTNO
ENR 3-1-1-20/27/32/50/90/95
UPPER ATS RTE UL180 UM142 UN34 UN160 UP620 RECLASSIFICATION OF CDR 2
IN SW APPROACHES ENR 3-2-1-24
UPPER ATS RTE UL613 UN12 UN20 UT420 INTRODUCTION OF REPORTING POINTS
TESDO AND ROTNO ENR 3-2-1-24/30/57/60/120 AND ENR 4-4-1
B1405/08
Q) EGTT/QARCA/IV/BO/AE/035/070/5121N00105W009
FROM: 08/09/11 13:05 TO: 08/09/11 14:15
E) TEMPORARY CONTROLLED AIRSPACE CLASS A ESTABLISHED AS FOLLOWS
AIRWAY FM CPT (512950N 0011318W) TO FARNBOROUGH, CONTROLLING
AUTHORITY LONDON ACC. AUS 08-09-0303/AS6.
LOWER: 3500FT AMSL
UPPER: FL070
B1691/08
Nav Warnings
EGTT: LONDON FIR
Q) EGTT/QWELW/IV/BO/W/000/350/5110N00440W198
FROM: 08/09/11 12:00 TO: 08/09/11 17:30
E) MET RESEARCH FLT. CALLSIGN METMAN (1 BAE 146-301) ACFT OPERATING BTN
SFC AND FL350 WI AREA AS FOLLOWS.
AREA ALPHA. DEFINED BY POSITIONS. 5330N 00100W 5000N 00100W-
5000N 00200W 4850N 00800W 5100N 00800W 5220N 00530W 5330N 00530W
ORIGIN. ACTIVITY MAINLY UNDER LATCC (MIL) LJAO ATS.
LIGHT WT SONDES WILL BE DROPPED DURING THIS SORTIE. ALL OPS SUBJECT
TO PRIOR ATC CLEARANCE. (AUS ACN 08-00-0113 DATED 28 MAR 08 REFERS).
ACFT RTE PLAN CAN BE FOUND AT
FAAM Home Page. AUS 08-09-0449/AS2.
LOWER: SFC
UPPER: FL350