The NOTAM Issue

Recently, the FAA had a fiasco with its NOTAM service. Departures were halted system-wide and there was general fear and loathing in the air transport industry. According to Flying magazine, in a preliminary statement the FAA is claiming the cause of the shutdown was related to a damaged database file. The purpose of the NOTAM is to provide important and current information to pilots. There have been facile comparisons to the previous fiasco with Southwest Airlines. Easy does it there folks.

NOTAM used to stand for Notice To Airmen. It was changed to Notice To Air Missions. I guess this is now gender neutral.

Meg Godlewski at Flying magazine writes-

NOTAMs provide essential information to pilots about the abnormal status of a component of the national airspace system, such as ground-based navigational system failures at airports, GPS outages, and facility closures. Pilots are required to check for NOTAMs pertinent to for their departure airport, route, and destination as part of preflight planning.

The content of a NOTAM is written in a highly abbreviated manner. This continues from the days of the teletype machine where brevity was important due to the limitations of communication technology. An example of a NOTAM from an FAA website is shown below-

e. Changes to usable runway length and declared distances

EXAMPLES-

…RWY 19 THR DISPLACED 300FT MARKING NOT STD. DECLARED DIST: TORA 6827FT TODA 6827FT ASDA 6827FT LDA 6527FT. ….
…RWY 01 DECLARED DIST: TORA 6827FT TODA 6827FT ASDA 6527FT LDA 6527FT. …

NOTE-

Runway 19 threshold is displaced 300 feet, therefore the Runway 19 landing LDA is shortened by 300 feet. The LDA and ASDA for Runway 1 are also shortened by 300 feet.

EXAMPLE-

…RWY 05/23 NE 500FT CLSD. DECLARED DIST: RWY 05 TORA 7002FT TODA 7002FT ASDA 7002FT LDA 7002FT. RWY 23 TORA 7002FT TODA 7002FT ASDA 7002FT LDA 7002FT. …

NOTE-

Construction on Runway 05 requires 500 feet to be closed to protect a construction area thus changing declared distances to Runways 05 and 23.

EXAMPLE-

…RWY 08/26 CHANGED TO 10000FT X 150FT. DECLARED DIST: RWY 08 TORA 9000FT TODA 9500FT ADSA 9000FT LDA 9000FT. RWY 26 TORA 9000FT TODA 9000FT ASDA 9400FT LDA 10000FT….

Notice that each example has a “translation” in plain English. It seems like there is no longer a technology-related need for this kind of abbreviated and cryptic text.

In government there is a general hesitancy to fund upgrades to infrastructure, unless maybe it relates to defense. An upgrade of the NOTAM system isn’t like executing a moon landing or splitting the atom. It is plainly needed IT work and when the congress gets through parading their indignity in front of the cameras, they should be able to get started on funding and mandating a fix in the system.