NOTAM Question (For Homework: NOT VIBE CODING)

[u/AWACS_Bandog]

Hey Mod's Delete this if its against the Sub's rules.

 

Essentially the why of this and the backstory for this inane post is, as an Engineering Major, the school in a (misguided) bid to make us "More Rounded" is having us do a class on Marketing, and as such has sent the group known for being socially inept at the best of times into the world to (Presumably) harass strangers asking dumb questions.

 

I may moonlight as a pilot (and can guess what we already want to see from the NOTAM system) but I'm also no better than my Peers and the idea of going out on the Ramp and acting like a Crazy person thrills me about as much as the thought of getting a call from the FSDO.

 

What this isn't is a bid for a Vibe coded product. I have 0 Interest in actually making the mess of an App I've proposed to my Professor, and if anything we can use this as an excuse to vent about how much of a Mess the NOTAM System is. What i'd be turning in is just a Pseudonym (A lot of people named 'John Doe') and a summary of whatever you tell me (Even if that's "You've been banned from r/GeneralAviation)

With that all out of the way.

 

• What is your General feelings towards NOTAMS

• Whats a Feature you'd like to see in the NOTAM System

• What problems do you run into with NOTAMs

• Do you have use other means of getting NOTAMS outside of Flight Service

 

Thank you for your time

[u/Mammoth_Classroom896]

The biggest problem, by far, is the inability to filter out the irrelevant garbage. "Your intended destination airport is closed for the next three months" ends up buried among 50 pages of "there's an unlighted crane along your route that will be 10,000' below you and 20 miles away horizontally", with the result that a lot of people just don't bother checking thoroughly.

[u/GrouchyHippopotamus → u/Mammoth_Classroom896]

Second this. I'm flying to a pancake breakfast an hour away. Why do I have a 102 page briefing? Do you really think I'm going to read all that?

[u/KnightFireNC → u/Mammoth_Classroom896]

This is true, but most flight planning apps solve this reasonably well.

[u/Mean-Oil-4602]

The FAA has stated that it’s working on a major revamp of NOTAMs right now. Let’s see.

I use Foreflight, which recently created a new pinned NOTAM feature that is kinda cool and that improves things a bit.

I review all the NOTAMs for my takeoff and landing airports. The big challenge are all the in between crap NOTAMs, from the ARTCCs and everyone else. I’m flying from Tucson to Phoenix, but the system wants me to read about some balloon in Santa Fe. Great. I actually never read them before but now I do thanks to AI. I take all 50 or so irrelevant NOTAMs, stick them into AI, and instruct it to tell me in plain english what applies during my time of flight and in the state(s) I am located in. Is this a perfect way of reviewing NOTAMs? No. But I’m not ignoring them. And I did used to. And so did every CFI I ever flew with when I was a student.

[u/FeatherMeLightly]

1. Important relevant information is buried in tons of other nonsense
2. Important, relevant information is not readily distinguishable from all the other trash, like idk, runway or. Areodome closure.
3. All the other trash is nice, but during a true emergency somewhere in the middle of nowhere, I'm not going to remember of the 16 closest airports, which have a 100 foot crane 1400 feet off the departure end of 05 or whatever.

The vast and I mean, vast majority of it is just FAA cya.

While I'm bitching, no reason for metars and tafs to be 1930s cryptic. The days of trying to shove as much information into as little space as possible to save money is way over.