How to read NOTAMs
by Eric Bradley, 12 July 2015
Photo:
Fisher (viewology.net)
[ccSA]
The great thing about NOTAMs is that they are a lot easier to read than METARs or TAFs. Usually written in abbreviated English, they warn you about all the known hazards and special conditions you may encounter.
That means everything from potential terrorist activity, to closed runways, to wildlife. Here are some examples of NOTAM reports:
!SFO 04/063 (KSFO A0730/11) SFO TWY TAXILANES 5,5A,5B,6,6A,6B CMSD ASPH/UNLGTD
!SFO 02/067 SFO TWY Z1 NORTHBOUND ENTRANCE CLSD TO RWY 10R TO JET ACFT AND FOUR ENGINE TURBOPROPS WEF 1302282334-1308312300
Now these are so obvious they don't really need a lot of explaining. One interesting feature is the use of IATA identification at the start of the message instead of the usual ICAO.
| Data | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ! | NOTAM |
| SFO | staiond ID (San Francisco International Airport) |
| 04/063 | 63rd NOTAM for this location for 4th month of year (April) |
| KSFO A0730/11 | Area affected & FAA file number |
| SFO TWY | Taxiway at San Franscisco Intl Aiport |
| TAXILANES 5,5A etc | Obviously refers to the specific taxilanes mentioned |
| CMSD | Commissioned |
| ASPH/UNLGTD | Asphalt unlighted |
For the second example:
| Data | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ! | NOTAM |
| SFO | staiond ID (San Francisco International Airport) |
| 02/067 | 67th NOTAM for this location, 2nd month of year (February) |
| TWY Z1 | Taxiway Zulu One |
| CLSD | Closed |
| RWY 10R | Runway 10 Right |
| WEF | "with effect", which means "effective from/to the following dates". |
| 1302282334 | 28 February 2013 @ 23:34 UTC |
| 1308312300 | 31 August 2013 @ 23:00 UTC |
To understand how the time code works for WEF dates, it is grouped into sections. The first 2 digits are the year, so in this case 13 = 2013. The next 2 digits are the month, so in this case 08 = August. The next 2 digits are the day, so 31 = 31. Finally the last 4 digits are the UTC time.
While all these codes and abbreviations may seem intuitive to native speakers of English, bear in mind that they are much less obvious to non-native speakers. In a future post we will try to clarify as many of the abbreviations as possible.
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For most users, it will be best to switch the browser to full screen mode (F11), so that the screen won't scroll unintentionally.
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UPDATE: From August 2017 we fixed this problem slightly. It will now scale the entire screen on Android phones. Unfortunately if your phone has a very small screen, that may make it difficult to read the text.
In the lesson panel on the left side of the page, you will see it has been divided into 3 sections.
The top section shows the available lessons, displayed as a row of buttons. Each lesson is designed to follow from the previous one, so it is best to complete them in order from left to right.
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Most of the time, you should read every page of every lesson. The exception is lesson 1: Check & Start. For that lesson, you can skip straight to page 5 if you have no interest in real-world aviation and only want to learn the MCDU procedures.
This help file is due to be updated and will be given a new separate page with much more detail.
For now, we felt it is better to just get the most vital information out there as quickly as possible, so you can started. We will make fixes as we go, and continue adding content as it becomes possible.
Our site is famous for two reasons... first and best, because of our attention to detail and our solid attempt to create the most realistic free online training tool available for the MCDU. But unfortunately we're also famous for how slowly we can make updates.
We'd like to improve on both counts! And that's where you have the opportunity to help.
This product is available to the public totally free of charge and we don't make any profit from it at all. We volunteer our spare time to work on the project and unfortunately there is less and less of this spare time available.
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xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 25 3 4 5 6 7 8 9"
When we first started this project, many airlines were still using the older MCDU hardware with just software updates, so many of them had a simple OFF/BRT knob that you rotated to adjust the brightness or turn the unit off. That is no longer the case and it is much more common to encounter the newer hardware, so we have implemented a long overdue update to the interface. Now you use the BRT and DIM keys to switch on and off. We have not added incremental brightness yet, but it is planned for the near future.
New
FANS
/ ATC COMM tutorial available!
Additional information is available from
document
or visit
IBAC website).
For now, it works in a much simplified manner. Tough break, but we need more money!
Fixed PERF CLB / CRZ / DES pages.
Built framework for PERF APPR page, but it does
not display yet (needs a little coding, thanks for
your patience and understanding).
Now also working on some new LATREV functionality.
Added section to website to allow you to
participate in developing this project.
For the moment, because I don't yet have any other place to bring this notice to attention, regarding the soon-to-be-implemented communications features, I would like to present this document containing potentially important information regarding the nature of communications messages and some of the matters that you should be aware of. Eventually we will get around to providing a tutorial on all this stuff here on the MCDU website. The features will be available before the tutorial is ready, so that is why I have made the link to the document, which is not a tutorial but does raise some important issues that will undoubtedly be of help to you in your training.