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Fun stuff about NOTAMs: https://fixingnotams.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Field-Guide-to-Notams-OpsGroup.pdf https://fixingnotams.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/

by rwmj 4y ago

Fun stuff about NOTAMs: https://fixingnotams.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Field-Guide-to-Notams-OpsGroup.pdf https://fixingnotams.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Field-Gu...

eternalban 4y ago
"There are three parts to the problem: the system, the format, and the content. The system 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. The format is, at best, forgivable. It’s pretty awful. It’s a trip back in time to when Notams were introduced. You might think that was the 1960’s, or the 50’s. In fact, it’s 1924, when 5-bit ITA2 was introduced. The world shifted to ASCII in 1963, bring ing the Upper and Lower case format that every QWERTY key board uses today, but we didn’t follow – nope, we’ll stick with our 1924 format, thank you." https://web.archive.org/web/20230104130153/https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_info/aeronav/notams/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230104130153/https://www.faa.g... "The FAA is changing the format for Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) to align with international standards. The transition to the new format will ensure U.S. NOTAMs are compliant with standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and promote further global harmonization among neighboring Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs)." ICAO NOTAM format https://vat-air.dk/files/ICAO%20NOTAM%20format.pdf https://vat-air.dk/files/ICAO%20NOTAM%20format.pdf Example! (decoder ring not included) "Q) EGTT/QMRXX/IV/NBO/A/000/999/5129N00028W005"
- mzs 4y ago
  I want to point out that lower-case is possible with ITA2. Start at 4.6 of ITU-T Recommendation S.2 / 11/1988 in the Blue Book, basically 11111 & 11011 11111 switch case in locking/unlocking mode.
- wstuartcl 4y ago
  Its even more amazing when you really sit down and think about all of the systems (many highly resistant to change like aircraft navigation systems) that all connect and utilize this service. What appear like simple changes and proposals in the aerospace realm are extremely hard to execute and many times take decades (multiple) to come into play. Global services/systems are even harder.
xg15 4y ago
OpsGroup, the organisation behind that guide is also worth mentioning. It's a self-organised advocacy organization for flight operations personnel. Apparently they have a longstanding campaign to reform the NOTAM system (as explained in the guide). They also have a summary of today's incident: https://ops.group/blog/us-flights-delayed-after-notam-system-failure/ https://ops.group/blog/us-flights-delayed-after-notam-system...
NelsonMinar 4y ago
This is hilarious. Really appreciate the examples of irrelevant clutter obscuring important information. Any UX designer can learn from this as an example of what not to do.
bombcar 4y ago
Fun but deadly. They’re not wrong about the absolute avalanche of irrelevant data that will be used to show you “you should have known” - hence the proliferation of “interpretation” services.
- azherebtsov 4y ago
  But it’s up to airline how they present NOTAMS to the pilot in the briefing package. They can (and do) use geolocation present in some (many) NOTAMs to filter them out. For example do not show the NOTAM just because the flight path intersects with the airspace. They can do even better - consider not only location but also altitude range, the best flight planning systems can consider also estimated time of arrival of the plane near the location of the NOTAM and filter out those which are not yet valid or those which are expired (the validity range usually present in each message). This makes the problem of including the NOTAM a 4-dimensional - geographical location 2 dimensions, altitude 1 dimension and a time. Not the easiest to solve, but solvable. Of course for every dimension margins can be applied to accommodate re-routes or departure delays, or ATC commands. There is no written in stone standard of how to present NOTAMS. Newer may be displayed at the beginning, etc Not to say that they can (and do) separate airfield and airspace messages to segment the large set onto meaningful subsets. I mean there ways to make sure important information is not lost and less important available if needed.
  - bombcar 4y ago
    Airlines aren't the only things doing "air missions" - there is software that filters out much of it, but it IS quite archaic (similar to how the "official weather" notifications are set out). Look at the Ukraine one for a pretty scary example.
    - dpe82 4y ago
      Nit: it's just "Ukraine" not "the Ukraine." See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Ukraine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Ukraine

by rwmj 4y ago

Fun stuff about NOTAMs: https://fixingnotams.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Field-Guide-to-Notams-OpsGroup.pdf https://fixingnotams.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Field-Gu...

eternalban 4y ago

"There are three parts to the problem: the system, the format, and the content. The system 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. The format is, at best, forgivable. It’s pretty awful. It’s a trip back in time to when Notams were introduced. You might think that was the 1960’s, or the 50’s. In fact, it’s 1924, when 5-bit ITA2 was introduced. The world shifted to ASCII in 1963, bring ing the Upper and Lower case format that every QWERTY key board uses today, but we didn’t follow – nope, we’ll stick with our 1924 format, thank you." https://web.archive.org/web/20230104130153/https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_info/aeronav/notams/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230104130153/https://www.faa.g... "The FAA is changing the format for Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) to align with international standards. The transition to the new format will ensure U.S. NOTAMs are compliant with standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and promote further global harmonization among neighboring Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs)." ICAO NOTAM format https://vat-air.dk/files/ICAO%20NOTAM%20format.pdf https://vat-air.dk/files/ICAO%20NOTAM%20format.pdf Example! (decoder ring not included) "Q) EGTT/QMRXX/IV/NBO/A/000/999/5129N00028W005"

mzs 4y ago
I want to point out that lower-case is possible with ITA2. Start at 4.6 of ITU-T Recommendation S.2 / 11/1988 in the Blue Book, basically 11111 & 11011 11111 switch case in locking/unlocking mode.
wstuartcl 4y ago
Its even more amazing when you really sit down and think about all of the systems (many highly resistant to change like aircraft navigation systems) that all connect and utilize this service. What appear like simple changes and proposals in the aerospace realm are extremely hard to execute and many times take decades (multiple) to come into play. Global services/systems are even harder.

xg15 4y ago

OpsGroup, the organisation behind that guide is also worth mentioning. It's a self-organised advocacy organization for flight operations personnel. Apparently they have a longstanding campaign to reform the NOTAM system (as explained in the guide). They also have a summary of today's incident: https://ops.group/blog/us-flights-delayed-after-notam-system-failure/ https://ops.group/blog/us-flights-delayed-after-notam-system...

NelsonMinar 4y ago

This is hilarious. Really appreciate the examples of irrelevant clutter obscuring important information. Any UX designer can learn from this as an example of what not to do.

bombcar 4y ago

Fun but deadly. They’re not wrong about the absolute avalanche of irrelevant data that will be used to show you “you should have known” - hence the proliferation of “interpretation” services.

azherebtsov 4y ago
But it’s up to airline how they present NOTAMS to the pilot in the briefing package. They can (and do) use geolocation present in some (many) NOTAMs to filter them out. For example do not show the NOTAM just because the flight path intersects with the airspace. They can do even better - consider not only location but also altitude range, the best flight planning systems can consider also estimated time of arrival of the plane near the location of the NOTAM and filter out those which are not yet valid or those which are expired (the validity range usually present in each message). This makes the problem of including the NOTAM a 4-dimensional - geographical location 2 dimensions, altitude 1 dimension and a time. Not the easiest to solve, but solvable. Of course for every dimension margins can be applied to accommodate re-routes or departure delays, or ATC commands. There is no written in stone standard of how to present NOTAMS. Newer may be displayed at the beginning, etc Not to say that they can (and do) separate airfield and airspace messages to segment the large set onto meaningful subsets. I mean there ways to make sure important information is not lost and less important available if needed.
- bombcar 4y ago
  Airlines aren't the only things doing "air missions" - there is software that filters out much of it, but it IS quite archaic (similar to how the "official weather" notifications are set out). Look at the Ukraine one for a pretty scary example.
  - dpe82 4y ago
    Nit: it's just "Ukraine" not "the Ukraine." See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Ukraine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Ukraine