You're On Notice

摘要

From navigation and communication outages, to runway closures to misprinted charts and to identifying every structure in your county over 200 feet high -in other words anything new that could affect the safety of flight, you'll likely find in a Notam.Automation also has changed the way we can process Notams during our flight planning, and old distinctions between local and distant Notams have blurred. Not so the FDC Notam-named because of its source, the FAA's Flight Data Center-which can be regulatory in nature.The sheer quantity of Notams, plus their user-unfriendly all-caps format riddled with abbreviations, have from time to time sparked calls for fundamental changes, including on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Plain-text translators work well but there's still a lot to reject or consider when becoming familiar with "all available information."One way to deal with this torrent of poorly presented information is to call Flight Service, ask for an abbreviated briefing and query the briefer about Notams for your proposed flight, and especially if there's any new FDC Notam affecting the airspace or procedures you anticipate. Listen to the briefer; there might be some nuggets you didn't know about. And at least you'll be on the record when FAA's enforcement apparatus asks you about a TFR bust. - J.B.