Let’s fix Notams
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One long international flight I did across many FIRs, the FIR NOTAMs only were 133 pages in normal font. And there was some important stuff buried on page 80 that would have caused significant angst if I hadn't found it. I was glad I'd spent the 2 hours the day before poolside checking them.
NOTAM requirements are here https://www.airservicesaustralia.com...s-for-CASA.pdf
NOTAM requirements are here https://www.airservicesaustralia.com...s-for-CASA.pdf
I find it odd that there is no mention of software to do the conversion of the majority of NOTAMs that are conventional so they can be sorted and rated automatically leaving the smaller irregular presentation NOTAMs to be interpreted. The workload should be considerably eased by that. If there was a service, then the user interpretations might be collected and, if they are consistently interpreted by the users, added and substituted into the automatic category. Pay users a couple of dollars if they submit before it goes automatic.
If a code always stands for some statement, it's not difficult to do a find/replace. Similar with reformatting times and dates.
I like the compensation angle unless the pilots can influence the issuing of NOTAMs as a money maker. Look what happens to software developers when a reward is handed out for finding bugs in the code. If it takes 20 seconds to read one, that's 3 per minute, or 180 per hour. At a dollar a piece that's pretty good compensation.
If a code always stands for some statement, it's not difficult to do a find/replace. Similar with reformatting times and dates.
I like the compensation angle unless the pilots can influence the issuing of NOTAMs as a money maker. Look what happens to software developers when a reward is handed out for finding bugs in the code. If it takes 20 seconds to read one, that's 3 per minute, or 180 per hour. At a dollar a piece that's pretty good compensation.
If the NOTAM admin system would allow the person entering the NOTAM to rank or rate it, that would solve some of the problem. One could enter a NOTAM into the system and rank it between 1 being super-critical(runway xx fouled, closed to all traffic UFN) down to 10(4ft shrub 135M from threshold). It would give pilots an instant way to filter the info based on the person entering the data from the start.
Of course, it's up to the person entering the data not to fudge it and consider every NOTAM they enter as a 1. With that case, then using a designated NOTAM reviewer from the airline(s), and possibly from a group of mil and corp pilots could then squawk any NOTAM that was mis-ranked as a 1 for the proverbial shrub and have it moved to a ranking of 10.
Also, for a temp NOTAM, do not allow them to be re-issued repeatedly for the same squawk condition. Require that it must go over the wall to a perm NOTAM and meet the requirements for a Perm NOTAM. That would remove at least 10% maybe more of the chaff.
Of course, it's up to the person entering the data not to fudge it and consider every NOTAM they enter as a 1. With that case, then using a designated NOTAM reviewer from the airline(s), and possibly from a group of mil and corp pilots could then squawk any NOTAM that was mis-ranked as a 1 for the proverbial shrub and have it moved to a ranking of 10.
Also, for a temp NOTAM, do not allow them to be re-issued repeatedly for the same squawk condition. Require that it must go over the wall to a perm NOTAM and meet the requirements for a Perm NOTAM. That would remove at least 10% maybe more of the chaff.
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I think it's litigation avoidance. I worked for one employer which provided notams for the entire Pacific region for a Hong Kong, Bangkok sector and another employer whose system only gave relevant notams for the leg and diversions. Much better and likely to be read.
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There’s no way to fix the NOTAM issue actually, if it was in plain English they would be 2-3 times longer anyway. I’m able to scroll 100 notams in about a minute as a shorthaul pilot, but that relies on multiple sectors per day and you pick up a new one easily, or not 😂
One must remember that the NOTAM system is world wide and is part of ICAO. In my time with them it took an average of seven yrs to process any change in their system due to language differences and very slow mail in some parts of the globe etc.
Notwithstanding there is a very urgent need for an update. Airservices could improve the system greatly and still be ICAO compliant. EG: Why does a GA flight operating OCTA (in G) need all the NOTAMs for the nearby Primary airport? It works the other way as well, the 737 does not need info on en-route GA dromes etc….
AIRSERVICEs have been tackled on this a number of times over the past decade to make the PFIBs smaller and more relevant, but they don’t see a need and use standardisation with ICAO as an excuse. CASA need to apply the screws for some change. Not sure if anyone there knows what to do however!!
The other side of the coin is that much of GA do not even bother getting or reading them. That is also part of the problem.
Notwithstanding there is a very urgent need for an update. Airservices could improve the system greatly and still be ICAO compliant. EG: Why does a GA flight operating OCTA (in G) need all the NOTAMs for the nearby Primary airport? It works the other way as well, the 737 does not need info on en-route GA dromes etc….
AIRSERVICEs have been tackled on this a number of times over the past decade to make the PFIBs smaller and more relevant, but they don’t see a need and use standardisation with ICAO as an excuse. CASA need to apply the screws for some change. Not sure if anyone there knows what to do however!!
The other side of the coin is that much of GA do not even bother getting or reading them. That is also part of the problem.
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