New source for Notams
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 778
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From: London, UK
New source for Notams
It's early days, so it's still in "beta", but the fly.dsc.net website now can do local area and route briefings.
Currently it only offers Notams for the London FIR (EGTT) though if it proves successful it will have others. It's pretty fast and hopefully easy to use. It has fairly comprehensive filtering capabilities so that you can get the list down to the minimum size that suits your flying. The briefing for a radius around a point is quite useful for flying in the local area. Both this and the waypoints on a route briefing can be almost anywhere, from navaids to villages. You can also easily bookmark as many as you like to run them in the future.
The output has been designed to be easy to scan read. Try pressing the space bar in your browser to move down a page at a time.
http://fly.dsc.net/u/Notams
Currently it only offers Notams for the London FIR (EGTT) though if it proves successful it will have others. It's pretty fast and hopefully easy to use. It has fairly comprehensive filtering capabilities so that you can get the list down to the minimum size that suits your flying. The briefing for a radius around a point is quite useful for flying in the local area. Both this and the waypoints on a route briefing can be almost anywhere, from navaids to villages. You can also easily bookmark as many as you like to run them in the future.
The output has been designed to be easy to scan read. Try pressing the space bar in your browser to move down a page at a time.
http://fly.dsc.net/u/Notams
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 98
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From: The South
Originally Posted by drauk
It's early days, so it's still in "beta", but the fly.dsc.net website now can do local area and route briefings.
http://fly.dsc.net/u/Notams
http://fly.dsc.net/u/Notams
It has a few quirks at the moment but it's pretty encouraging -- I assume this was knocked up pretty quickly following the earlier discussions about NOTAMS? Well done.
Things I noticed:
- NOTAMs that are both airfield and enroute appear twice (e.g. Redhill NDB)
- could do with finer control over the NOTAMs displayed, e.g. daytime flights would not need to know about obstruction lights, IFR OCAS would not need flow control NOTAMs; perhaps some template options aimed at day VFR, night 'VFR', IFR OCAS and complete?
- plot on map didn't work for me (just got a red star marking my destination)
- a base map marking airfields and major towns would be better than one showing roads
Mark
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 778
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From: London, UK
- NOTAMs that are both airfield and enroute appear twice (e.g. Redhill NDB)
- could do with finer control over the NOTAMs displayed, e.g. daytime flights would not need to know about obstruction lights, IFR OCAS would not need flow control NOTAMs; perhaps some template options aimed at day VFR, night 'VFR', IFR OCAS and complete?
- plot on map didn't work for me (just got a red star marking my destination)
- a base map marking airfields and major towns would be better than one showing roads
Thanks for the feedback; it's very useful.
Edited to say:
I now know that the maps relate to a problem specific to Internet Explorer, which I'll have a look at. In the mean time, use Firefox.
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 0
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From: Surrey, UK.
I may have said this elsewhere, but it bears repeating 
Works perfectly in IE7
This mapping of NOTAMs which, er, can't be done... You realise you are making thales look even more absolutely useless than they managed by themselves (no mean feat!)...
I am still cross-checking against AIS site and/or AvBrief (when the AIS site falls over again) - but I haven't found any errors yet.
When you re-hosted the AIP/AICs you deserved a medal - or at least recognition for your efforts.
NOTAMs and maybe even graphical NOTAMs are even better.
Thanks, drauk. Excellent.
AAMOI, how many developers and how many man hours/days went into these enhancements (i.e. not including the already brilliant planner bit)?
Works perfectly in IE7
This mapping of NOTAMs which, er, can't be done... You realise you are making thales look even more absolutely useless than they managed by themselves (no mean feat!)...
I am still cross-checking against AIS site and/or AvBrief (when the AIS site falls over again) - but I haven't found any errors yet.
When you re-hosted the AIP/AICs you deserved a medal - or at least recognition for your efforts.
NOTAMs and maybe even graphical NOTAMs are even better.
Thanks, drauk. Excellent.
AAMOI, how many developers and how many man hours/days went into these enhancements (i.e. not including the already brilliant planner bit)?
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 537
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From: Northampton UK
Fantastic stuff drauk - well done!
Map thingy works really well on my IE6 ... zoom in and switch to the satellite photo and the center point of the Northampton Balloon Festival NOTAM is bang on the Racecourse. Works for me!
RC
Map thingy works really well on my IE6 ... zoom in and switch to the satellite photo and the center point of the Northampton Balloon Festival NOTAM is bang on the Racecourse. Works for me!
RC
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 82
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From: uk
Brilliant,
Easy to use
Why cant CAA do something like this, just cant get to grips with the offical notam software and I would class myself as extremely computer literate .I hope this project continues to develop would be a shame to lose it
Easy to use
Why cant CAA do something like this, just cant get to grips with the offical notam software and I would class myself as extremely computer literate .I hope this project continues to develop would be a shame to lose it
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 2,547
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From: Dublin
Drauk,
You need to do something about the route validation.
I understand that you have it limited to the London FIR at present?
So put in a route:
EGNH Blackpool
EGNS Isle of Man
EIDW Dublin
EINN Shannon
The route was accepted, but when I plotted it on the map, is was clearly well out. While for something this far out it is obvious, but if it wasn't so far out, it might not be obvious to the use.
dp
You need to do something about the route validation.
I understand that you have it limited to the London FIR at present?
So put in a route:
EGNH Blackpool
EGNS Isle of Man
EIDW Dublin
EINN Shannon
The route was accepted, but when I plotted it on the map, is was clearly well out. While for something this far out it is obvious, but if it wasn't so far out, it might not be obvious to the use.
dp
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 1,784
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From: Savannah GA & Portsmouth UK
Why cant CAA do something like this
If they do anything it will take forever and cost a fortune. Would you like to have three guesses at where the bill will end up?
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 778
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From: London, UK
dublinpilot,
I don't really follow what you're saying to be honest, but I'd certainly like to find out if there is a problem.
Notams are only for the London FIR, but plotting a route should work anywhere in the world.
I put in the exact idents you mentioned and go this route. Is this not what you'd expect?
I don't really follow what you're saying to be honest, but I'd certainly like to find out if there is a problem.
Notams are only for the London FIR, but plotting a route should work anywhere in the world.
I put in the exact idents you mentioned and go this route. Is this not what you'd expect?
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 13,787
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From: EuroGA.org
Drauk is doing a brilliant job here. We should all support him and report anything that needs fixing, and any useful tips for features, etc.
As regards CAA doing something, no chance. CAA is busy writing emails/letters nowadays claiming to be a regulator/prosecutor only, with no responsibility for service provision.
GA doesn't even feature on the air traffic horizon in the UK. We are tolerated, no more. This isn't the USA, where loads of people use GA as a means of transport.
As regards CAA doing something, no chance. CAA is busy writing emails/letters nowadays claiming to be a regulator/prosecutor only, with no responsibility for service provision.
GA doesn't even feature on the air traffic horizon in the UK. We are tolerated, no more. This isn't the USA, where loads of people use GA as a means of transport.
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 778
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From: London, UK
Ironic the way it lists Finningley Doncaster-Sheffield Robin Hood as an 'unlicensed farm strip' ..
"FINNINGLEY" may be listed as "Airfield (unlicensed, farm strip or private)" because I guess it was once and one of the lists of airfields we used had all kinds of historic ones.
Meanwhile "Doncaster Sheffield Robin Hood" is listed as a licensed airfield with its approach plates and all that other stuff.
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 2,547
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From: Dublin
Drauk,
Perhaps I've done something wrong.
I DIDN'T log in.
I clicked Plan.
I entered the waypoints as ICAO codes only.
EGNH
EGNS
EIDW
EINN
I then clicked "Get Notams"
I then clicked "Show on Map".
I got this:
Not sure where I am going wrong.
dp
Perhaps I've done something wrong.
I DIDN'T log in.
I clicked Plan.
I entered the waypoints as ICAO codes only.
EGNH
EGNS
EIDW
EINN
I then clicked "Get Notams"
I then clicked "Show on Map".
I got this:
Not sure where I am going wrong.
dp
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 778
Likes: 0
From: London, UK
At a guess you left the country set to UK when you entered the waypoints. Select 'Any' and try it.
After clicking Plan, look at the list of waypoints that it has found. If you've set the country to UK and enter 'EINN' it can't find it, so it tries to find something else that you might have meant. The best it can find is 'Alsop en le Dale' (presumably because 'en' sounds a bit like 'einn') so it uses that. BEFORE clicking on the map link you can select from the various other choices that it has offered.
After clicking Plan, look at the list of waypoints that it has found. If you've set the country to UK and enter 'EINN' it can't find it, so it tries to find something else that you might have meant. The best it can find is 'Alsop en le Dale' (presumably because 'en' sounds a bit like 'einn') so it uses that. BEFORE clicking on the map link you can select from the various other choices that it has offered.
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 82
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From: uk
Originally Posted by Mike Cross
Please step out of your warm cosy utopian dream for a moment, into the real world and stop asking the CAA to do anything.
If they do anything it will take forever and cost a fortune. Would you like to have three guesses at where the bill will end up?
If they do anything it will take forever and cost a fortune. Would you like to have three guesses at where the bill will end up?
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 349
Likes: 0
From: UK
drauk, excellent site and it remains one of my favorites 
I did a quick try-out of the NOTAMs on my Blackberry (8700g) and I'm just getting the text, no maps. It all renders gracefully, but no images. It's evidently Google as nothing appears when I go to Google Maps directly.
Cheers
-bcfc
I did a quick try-out of the NOTAMs on my Blackberry (8700g) and I'm just getting the text, no maps. It all renders gracefully, but no images. It's evidently Google as nothing appears when I go to Google Maps directly.
Cheers
-bcfc