BBMF transit NOTAM H3737/10 Friday 20th August

[eharding]

...appears to be an East/West coding error, but most of the notified area of the transit won't show up on a Narrow Route Brief, if you're in the area tomorrow.

http://metutil-test.appspot.com/NotamData?type=KML&pointmarks=y&ids=EGTT-H3737/10 - Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&t=p&q=http%3A//metutil-test.appspot.com/NotamData%3Ftype%3DKML%26pointmarks%3Dy%26ids%3DEGTT-H3737/10)

[BackPacker]

I have seen a lot of errors in NOTAMs lately.

Right now there's a NOTAM in the Netherlands about Sail 2010. It's incredibly short and from the NOTAM text you would have no clue whatsoever what's going on, unless you happen to know what Sail 2010 is and where it's held. The encoding is a 20nm radius circle or something like that, encompassing the whole of the Schiphol CTR and then some, and from the text the upper limit is "UNL".

The NOTAM text refers to a website containing a 10 page PDF document that's available *in Dutch only*.

How would any foreign pilot be able to make sense of that?

Why is there no badnotam.org site where you can click on a NOTAM, leave your criticism and this gets fed back to the appropriate authority?

A1037/10 - SPECIAL RULES ZONES ESTABLISHED DURING SAIL 2010.
FOR ADDITIONAL INFO SEE Homepage - OPS help desk LVNL (http://WWW.LVNL-OHD.NL). GND - UNL, SR-SS, 19 AUG 04:15 2010
UNTIL 23 AUG 19:02 2010. CREATED: 06 AUG 13:58 2010

(P.s. The NOTAM sites I use do not let me get the other encoding lines.)

Edited to add that the radius seems to be a whopping 137 nm!

[Mike Cross]

First thing is that's not a NOTAM it's something that has been derived from a NOTAM.

However it's a good illustration of the perils of doing things that people think are legitimate and "official" but which have pitfalls.

The FIR concerned is EHAA. If you go to the US Defense Internet NOTAM Service (https://www.notams.jcs.mil) and look at the NOTAM for EHAA you won't find that NOTAM, which suggests that DINS is not a good place to go for your NOTAM if you are flying in Europe!

If you go to the UK AIS site you get it and it is presented like this
Q) EHAA/QRACA/IV/NBO/AW/000/999/5255N00454E137
B) FROM: 10/08/19 04:15C) TO: 10/08/23 19:02
E) SPECIAL RULES ZONES ESTABLISHED DURING SAIL 2010.
FOR ADDITIONAL INFO SEE Homepage - OPS help desk LVNL (http://WWW.LVNL-OHD.NL).
LOWER: GND
UPPER: UNL
SCHEDULE: SR-SS
A1037/10

Which, while still not the complete raw NOTAM text does at least contain the Q Line

Decode reads
EHAA - The FIR
QRACA - Airspace Reservation Activated
IV - affects IFR & VFR
NBO - For immdiate attn of a/c operators, for inclusion in Preflight Info Bulletins (PIB) and concerns flight ops
AW - Aerodrome NOTAM and NAV Warning
000/999 Range of FL affected (surface to unlimited)
5255N00454E - geographic centre of the activity
137 - radius in nm of a circle based on that centre that would enclose the activity

The plain text includes SCHEDULE: SR-SS, which are ICAO abbreviations and can be found in GEN2.2 of any AIP. Meaning is Sunrise-Sunset.

The fact that the explanatory stuff is in Dutch and not English is something to take up with Netherlands AIS. If however you look at the chart that is on the site, even though it is in Dutch it will show that the affected area is a dumbell shaped area with a max height of 3000ft. At a guess the reason why the NOTAM height is to FL999 is because SAIL 2010 involves tall ships with high masts that will constitute obstructions within the ATZ and Eurocontrol's OPADD (Operating Procedures for AIS Dynamic Data) require obstacles within an ATZ to be notified to that height.

At the end of the day if you want to have a bitch about a NOTAM you need to go first to the AIS of the State of issue, who should be able to tell you who was the originator so you can in turn go and have a whinge at him.

[BackPacker]

If however you look at the chart that is on the site

Amongst other things my point here is that if you're a commercial pilot and someone hands you a briefing for the next leg to Amsterdam, while seated in the cockpit, and this NOTAM is included, how are you going to judge whether this affects your flight? You don't have internet access so worst case scenario is that almost the whole EHAA FIR/UIR is now a SRZ. After all, the only info you have, if you're lucky enough that the Q line is included in your briefing, is that it concerns a cylinder with a radius of 137 nm, SFC-UNL.

I do not mind NOTAMs containing a link to a website that gives secundary information, but the primary information (shape of the SRZ, times of activation) should be included in the NOTAM text itself.

[Mike Cross]

A perfectly good question and one that needs to be put to the originator of the NOTAM. Let us know how you get on.

[BackPacker]

I'm not going to bother. I went to Sail 2010 on foot today and I'm pretty worn out. Tomorrow doesn't really look suitable for flying and the event ends Monday.

But if a badnotam.org site would have existed, where you could easily gripe (instead of PPRuNe), I would have left my complaint there.