4 August 2021
A couple of weeks ago a Notam appeared establishing some temporary restricted airspace. It covered a flight between Sandringham and Windsor, so even if you don’t subscribe to Majesty Magazine, you can probably work out who was likely in the helicopter. Temporary Restricted Airspace – a RA(T) – for this kind of rotary winged flight is relatively new, but it clearly presents a bit of a security dilemma. Disseminate the information publicly – and way in advance – and you presumably increase the terrorist risk. Keep it quiet and don’t publish (as used to be the case for rotary flights) and you run the risk of someone in another aircraft coming too close (I guess?).
The chosen solution seems to be to publish the information close to the time of the flight, and in this case, in a way that’s difficult for people to interpret. This particular Notam came with a huge circle of influence that covered much of southern England.
There was an AIS briefing note that showed the actual area, but that was not linked from the Notam and took a bit more searching. The CAA’s Skywise service also mentioned the restriction, but did so on the day of the flight.
“Smugly saying ‘it’s your fault’ doesn’t get any of us where we all want to be, does it?”
Originally, thanks to the large area of influence called out by the Notam’s Q line, the restriction appeared as a big shaded area on the navigation apps which we are rightly all encouraged to use. On the day in question SkyDemon plotted the exact area, but thanks to a typo in one of the coordinates this had been done manually by the team at SkyDemon HQ.
I asked the CAA a few questions about the Notam. What is the new requirement for a RA(T) when these were previously not needed (I didn’t get an answer to this but I thought the CAA might at least have pointed me in the right direction). Why it wasn’t it machine readable and, given the CAA’s requirement for MORing all RA(T) infringements, how many reports there’s been, and given the late delivery and poor format, if the subjects for this MOR would be treated in the way as other MORs.
I was surprised to receive a somewhat borderline aggressive response from a CAA spokesperson… All pilots have a legal and moral duty to ensure their flight can be made safely and all should be aware of any local air space restrictions that affect their planned routes. SkyWise does not replace the use of Notams and the need for all pilots to study the Notams alert as part of their pre-flight planning. This system does require the user to register and login when wanting to use the site. There are other ways to see Notam information such as the very successful online pre-flight planning tools, some of which are free to use. From time to time we do use SkyWise to share relevant and timely updates from the AIS website to GA stakeholders. To ensure the user has access to the full report, a link to the AIS website will be shared. When we share a SkyWise we want to ensure we include the most update to date/accurate version. The best way to do this is to share a link to the source of the information and so a link included in a SkyWise is regarded as the best method. The Notams system does require a login to read the full alert. This system is run and managed by NATS.
NATS also told me that the Notam in question had been created by the CAA. For the thousandth time, we’d all be better off if we worked together on this rather than working on our own sloped shoulder posture.
Pilots know they have to check Notam (all pilots have a legal and moral duty…), but thanks to that, the CAA and maybe NATS feel justified in washing their hands of any responsibility they have to make sure safety critical information is disseminated in a way that is accurate, timely and easy to consume.
Sit there smugly saying, ‘it’s your fault, you should know better’ if you like, but that doesn’t really get any of us where we all want to be, does it?
We are clearly in a much better place now than in the days of teleprinters spewing pages of information, all of which was and still is in CAPITAL LETTERS, but almost all of that progress has come about client side, while many of the remaining problems are generated on the creator side.
If it’s a critical system (and it is), perhaps we could all agree to point the accusatory finger at ourselves and ask how we can do better, how we can make things easier?
In that spirit, and until things are better, a couple of tips for pilots confused by a huge swathe of LAT/LONG coordinates. In software such as SkyDemon, you can click on the coordinates in the Notam window and see them highlighted on the map. If they are not plotted it will make it much easier to visualise the restriction than trying to plot them manually on a paper chart.
For belt and braces, and to catch any last minute changes, call the AIS information line as your last bit of prep. From the UK call 08085 354802 (free from landlines or mobiles) or +44 (0)1489 887515 from overseas, there you’ll find a recorded message with the day’s restrictions.
