NOTAM again
 

If ever the case needed to be made for the whole Q-line to be available as a general policy, how many flying this weekend stumbled across NOTAM B0074/03?

Checking with the AIS office confirmed that this was only applicable above FL200, but with the tools that they have given us, there is no way to get this information other than to telehone them. Fortunately, AvBrief & NotamPlot weeded it out ( :ok: guys!), but I'm not sure how!

Just in case you missed it, :eek: here it is:

OTH : FROM 03/01/16 11:25 TO PERM B0074/03
E)FPL AND RPL OF NON 8.33KHZ EQUIPPED FLTS REJECTED UNLESS, IF EXEMPTED, STS/EXM833 IS INCLUDED IN FPL OR RPL

And whilst I'm having a moan, as raised by Flyer mag in the January ish (Page 50, J is for Dubya), AIS don't report French NOTAM LFFA-D4624/03 even when constructing a briefing to destination LFDP, whereas the French system returns it. Interestingly, the French system returns a NOTAM for EGFA (just took a small sample from the EGTT A/D brief) For those that care (Mike, rustle, are you there?) the Q lines are QFALB and QMRLL for the French and English aerodromes respectively)

I'll be doing some more investigation over the next week or so, but it seems the French system ( http://olivia.aviation-civile.gouv.fr/ ) is considerably more useful - as well as giving the complete NOTAM with a variey of search options, it links to the met (if you have a Meteo-France code), and even allows you to file/change a flight plan!

For other insomniacs, although the ICAO decode is only available as a purchasable tome, http://www2.faa.gov/atpubs/NTM/notapd1.html would be a starting point

Avbrief/NotamPlot weeded it out because they have the Q Line.

Why can't we see the Q Line? Try this theory.

We asked for it to be provided. CAA/DAP said no.
A court case is pending in Australia between Airservices Australia and Jeppesen. AA, who provide the AIS, is trying to assert copyright in the Australian IAIP, which includes NOTAM, AIC's and the AIP and want to charge Jepp and others for the data. Story here

Our own CAA is involved in Eurocontrol's European AIS Database (EAD) project. Within this there is a "Copyright and Service Charging Policy Implementation Task Force".

The Q Line is the key to successful filtering and presentation of NOTAM data. AvBrief get the Q Line because their access to the data is controlled and can eventually be charged for. We do not because we have free access via the Internet and they don't want to make information freely available when plans exist for charging for it in the future.

Now consider the products which use aeronautical data, and which would become more expensive if their publishers had to pay licensing fees to each of the nearly 200 ICAO contracting states. They include:-

Briefing Services
Charts
Flight Guides
Approach Plates
GPS databases
Flight Planning software (e.g. NavBox)
Simulators
FMCS

"Radix malorum est Cupiditas"

Any copyright lawyers out there care to give an opinion on whether you can copyright facts like the length of a runway or the opening hours of an aerodrome?


This month's edition of "General Aviation", the magazine of AOPA UK will carry an article on this subject.

Thanks for the useful link. The full set of decodes is in ICAO document 8126 (Aeronautical Information Services Manual). Anyone interested in the Q Line and its importance could look here for more info.


Mike
for AOPA UK