{"id":5969,"date":"2019-03-03T01:27:16","date_gmt":"2019-03-03T01:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ops.group\/story\/?p=5969"},"modified":"2019-03-16T22:30:27","modified_gmt":"2019-03-16T22:30:27","slug":"the-problem-of-bullshit-notams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ops.group\/story\/the-problem-of-bullshit-notams\/","title":{"rendered":"The problem of Bullshit Notams"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article was first published on our blog in March 2017. It’s become a defining mission of the group to fix this problem.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s absolutely ridiculous<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We communicate the most critical flight information, using a system invented in 1920, with a format unchanged since 1924, burying essential information that will lose a pilot their job, an airline their aircraft, and passengers their lives<\/strong>, in a mountain of unreadable, irrelevant bullshit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes CASA Australia, that\u2019s you. Yes, Greek CAA, that\u2019s you. And you\u2019re not alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In an unintended twist of irony, the agencies seeking to cover their legal ass are party to creating the most criminal of systems \u2013 an unending flow of aeronautical sewage rendering the critical few pieces of information unfindable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is more than just hugely frustrating<\/strong> for each pilot, dispatcher, and controller that has to parse through it all; it\u2019s downright dangerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re a pilot, you\u2019ll either have already experienced this, or you\u2019re going to \u2013 you stuff something up, and then be told: \u201cbut there was a Notam out about that\u201d. Sure enough, there it is in black and white (and in big capital letters). Do you think that \u201cbut there were 100 pages of them\u201d is going to be a valid defence?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, it should be<\/strong>. The same agency conducting your post-incident interview is busy on the other end stuffing the system full of the garbage that prevented you from seeing it in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are three parts to the problem<\/strong>: the system, the format, and the content. The system<\/strong> is actually quite amazing. The AFTN network connects every country in the world, and Notam information once added is immediately available to every user. Coupled with the internet, delivery is immediate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The format<\/strong> is, at best, forgivable. It\u2019s pretty awful. It\u2019s a trip back in time to when Notams were introduced. You might think that was the 1960\u2019s, or the 50\u2019s. In fact, it\u2019s 1924, when 5-bit ITA2 was introduced. The world shifted to ASCII in 1963, bringing the Upper and Lower case format that every QWERTY keyboard uses today, but we didn\u2019t follow \u2013 nope, we\u2019ll stick with our 1924 format, thank you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read that again. 1924<\/strong>. Back then, upper case code-infested aeronautical messages would have seemed impressive and almost reassuring in their aloofness. But there weren\u2019t in excess of 1 million Notams per year, a milestone we passed in 2013. The 1 million milestone is remarkable in itself, but here\u2019s something else amazing: in 2006, there were only 500,000. So in seven years, Notams doubled. Why? Are there twice as many airports in the world? No. Twice as many changes and updates? Possibly. But far more likely: the operating agencies became twice as scared about leaving things out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so onto the culprit: the content<\/strong>. The core definition of a Notam is ESSENTIAL flight information<\/strong>. Essential, for anyone tasked with entering information into the Notam System, is defined as \u201cabsolutely necessary; extremely important\u201d. Here\u2019s a game you can play at home. Take your 100 page printout of Notams, and circle that ones that you think can be defined as essential. See how many fit that bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So why is all this garbage in the system? Because the questions that the creators of Notams ask are flawed. The conversation goes like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 \u201cShould we stick this into a Notam?\u201d
\u2013 \u201cYeah, we\u2019d better, just in case\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How many are actually asking, \u201cIs this essential information that aircrew need to know about ?<\/strong>\u201d. Almost none. Many \u2018solutions\u2019 to the Notam deluge involve better filtering, Q codes, and smart regex\u2019s. This overlooks the core problem. It\u2019s not what comes out that needs to be fixed, it\u2019s what goes in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even in 1921, we had much the same problem. Obstacle, 18 feet high, several miles from the runway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nobody cares. Unless you\u2019ve parked the Eiffel Tower on the threshold, leave this stuff for the AIP. And nobody cares about kites either. Nor about goat-grazing times<\/a>. We don\u2019t care if your bird scarer is U\/S. We don\u2019t care if there\u2019s a cherry-picker fixing a bulb somewhere. We don\u2019t care when you\u2019re cutting your grass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nor do we care about closed taxiways. The only way I can get onto a taxiway is with an ATC clearance, and ATC will not clear me onto a closed taxiway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We care if the airport is going to be closed when we get there<\/strong>. If we\u2019re going to have to divert because the runway is shut. If someone might shoot at us. If there are new rules. We care about the critical items, but we won\u2019t see them as things stand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so, about here is where a normal editorial piece might end with \u201cwe hope that the authorities improve the system\u201d, and sign off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But not here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re in the business of doing things here at FSB, not just talking about them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year we wrote a few pieces about the Greece vs Turkey Notam battle<\/a>. This month we did a group look at Briefing Packages, and it was astonishing to see how many pages of this diplomatic drivel still appeared in all our members\u2019 Briefings. All in all, on average 3 full pages<\/strong> of every briefing for a flight overflying Greece or Turkey contained this stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, we sent Greece a polite AFTN message on behalf of all of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


That\u2019s just one piece of a thousand-piece puzzle, and it would be nice to think that one piece at a time we could fix the sytem. Let\u2019s get real. It\u2019s a monster, and it\u2019s out of control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We don\u2019t think that we can fix the Notam system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, we can think about a different solution. And that\u2019s exactly what we\u2019re doing right now in OpsGroup. With almost 2000 members, we can make a difference. Watch this space. Or, if you want to help take action, send your thoughts to goatams@ops.group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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