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I dont think many people do read NOTAMS and that includes instructors. Maybe it is because very few people understand all the abbreviations. As Instructors may not have been trained to read NOTAMS they may not feel comfortable trying to teach a PPL student how to read them which leaves contientious pilots to teach themselves.
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I really hope this isn't true.
I rather suspect that it might be. When I was doing my PPL(A), I never heard of NOTAMS until I was well into doing cross countries. When it was eventually mentioned it was quite clear that my instructor didn't have a clear idea how to interpret them, and their importance certainly wasn't emphasised. The place was full of low hours hour-building instructors, which may or may not be relevant here. When I was doing my PPL(H), I was assumed to have done some navigation, but do you know, I can't recall anyone mentioning NOTAMS, ever. And you would have thought someone would have checked that I was reading them, wouldn't you?
Now, of course by the time I came to do my instructors course no-one mentioned NOTAMS, because I'd been using them for years, hadn't I? Well, yes, actually I had. But I well might not have been, under those circumstances.
So I rather think HelenD's statement might be true. And I do find myself wondering how many people are reading this, keeping quiet, and thinking: "There but for the Grace of God..."
Now don't go and flame me; I'm just stating what I think may be the case. Shooting the messenger will help no-one.
