NOTAMs and the Pilot's Bill of Rights
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Transcript of NOTAMs and the Pilot's Bill of Rights
Focusing on security and safety issues within general avia on.
Vol. 6 No. 1 March 2016
The FAA’s New NOTAMs Wendy Mia Pardew examines the new system
Small UAVs and NTSB Reporting
Helicopter EMS Aviation Safety Trends and Issues in the Industry
Search and Rescue in Europe Dr. Olja Čokorilo Examines the Complexi es
of Mul ‐State SAR Coopera on
4
Background photo: EMS Helicopter lands in unprepared field for rescue.
Photo credit: Crea ve Commons
A Flight A endant’s View
What I’ve Learned from VIPs
By Aleca King
42
Legal News You Can Use
NOTAMs and the Pilot’s Bill of Rights
By Wendy Mia Pardew, Esq.
Wendy examines the NOTAM system and
how it’s to change to meet Pilot’s
Bill of Rights 1 and its proposed
follow‐on, Pilot’s Bill of Rights 2. 10
Helicopter Air Ambulance
HEMS No More!
By Dave Hook
Dave examines the challenges, issues
and condi ons under which EMS
avia on professionals work. 16 Regional Search and Rescue Coopera on.
The Way Ahead.
By Professor Olja Čokoril, Ph.D.
Dr. Čokoril examines the complexi es and
solu ons for conduc ng Search and
Rescue in the ICAO European Region. 30
5
Front cover photo:
Back cover photo : Travis County EMS Eurocopter BK117 C2 Returns to Base.
Photo credit: Dave Hook
By Dave Hook, ATP, CFII
38
Samantha Jones, HEMS Flight Paramedic
Saving Pa ent Lives in the Back of a Helicopter
24
Staff Opinion
To the Ancient Order of Pterodactyls!
By Dave Hook
Celebra ng the first 100 years of US Coast Guard Avia on. 7
10
11
in recent history involves Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe
and a closed runway. The silver lining of what could have
been a tragedy is that no one was hurt, and the incident
inspired the 2012 Pilot’s Bill of Rights, which includes NOTAM
system improvements.1 Yet, NOTAM‐related occurrences,
incidents, and accidents con nue on a regular basis, includ‐
ing at least four airspace viola ons during Super Bowl 50,2 an
commercial flight.4 While the Pilot’s Bill of Rights is a start,
pilots do not appear sated.
FAA regula ons, including 14 CFR § 91.103, require that
pilots “become familiar with all available informa on
concerning [the] flight,” which implicitly includes NOTAMs.5
Not all pilots adhere strictly to this FAR when it comes to
NOTAMs and this inevitably leads to undesirable outcomes.
So what’s the issue? Pilots have voiced a spectrum of
reasons: NOTAMs are indecipherable, it’s too cumbersome
to look in several loca ons and sources for all applicable
NOTAMs, and there’s false sense of confidence gained from
regularly flying in and out of a given airport.
The Pilot’s Bill of Rights (PBR) was enacted, in part, to
address needed improvements to the NOTAM system, which
has long been decried as an quated, confusing, and
dangerous. The PBR required that the FAA begin a NOTAM
Improvement Program, which includes a NOTAM Improve‐
ment Panel composed of private sector groups to study and
further the Program’s objec ves.6 Those objec ves include
improving the system of providing airmen with per nent and
mely informa on regarding the na onal airspace system;
archiving, in a public central loca on, all NOTAMs, including
the original content and form of the no ces, the original date
of publica on, and any amendments to such no ces with the
date of each amendment; and developing NOTAM search
filters so that pilots can priori ze cri cal flight safety
informa on from other airspace system informa on.”7 The
Program seeks to decrease the volume of NOTAMs an airman
receives when retrieving preflight informa on, to make the
NOTAMs more relevant to the route and more useable, to
provide a full set of NOTAM results in addi on to specific
informa on requested by airmen, to provide a document
that is easily searchable, and to provide a filtering
One of the most
Photo credit: Crea ve Commons
12
mechanism similar to that provided by the Department of
Defense No ces to Airmen. 8
The Program’s objec ve should make the FAA’s dissemi‐
na on of NOTAMs more understandable, comprehensive,
and reliable. Pilots are currently responsible for knowing
NOTAM informa on even if the FAA has not disseminated
it. So, the need to search several sources provides danger‐
ous room for error. The NOTAM Improvement Panel
believes it has completed its mission. In its progress reports
to the FAA, the Panel describes its mission as follows: “The
work of the panel will yield an increasing amount of stand‐
ardized digital NOTAMs that can be more easily filtered,
sorted, and priori zed. This should result in a significant
reduc on in the volume of NOTAMs pilots must currently
review and allow pilots to focus only on those NOTAMs
relevant to their flight plan/path. As a result, pilots will be
more confident in the quality and accuracy of this focused
NOTAM informa on, and the safety of the Na onal
Airspace System (NAS) will be improved.”9 And, while
improvements dictated by the PBR were required to be
phased in no later than one year a er its August 2012
enactment, the NOTAM Improvement Panel completed its
final phase of improvement recommenda ons to the FAA
in October 2015. The NOTAM web search func on reflects
revisions prescribed by the PBR and can be found at
h ps://notams.aim.faa.gov/notamSearch/nsapp.html#/.
The Pilot’s Bill of Rights 2, which passed the Senate in
December 2015 but awaits House review, adds several
more elements to the NOTAM system improvements.10
Notably, beginning six months a er the PBR2’s enactment,
the FAA may not enforce a NOTAM viola on unless the
FAA complies with the requirements of the PBR2 that set
forth changes to the inves ga on, prosecu on, and
appeals process. In addi on, PBR2 requires that the FAA
con nue improving the NOTAM system to establish that
there is one repository to maintain and archive all
NOTAMs; that NOTAMs are Internet‐accessible, machine‐
readable, and searchable; that NOTAM standards include
the mes during which a TFR is in effect; that airmen need
only check the established repository for NOTAMs; and,
that a NOTAM is not deemed announced or published un l
the NOTAM is included in the established repository. And,
NOTAMs play a cri cal role in avia on safety. Whether it’s
making aviators aware of parachu ng ac vi es, like the Wings
of Blue jumper from the USAF Academy (above), or airshows and
forma on flights, like the 99th Flying Training Squadron’s T‐1A
Jayhawk flying echelon with the P‐51C Mustang “Tuskegee
Airman” of the Commemora ve Air Force’s Red Tail Squadron
(below). Photo credits: Dave Hook
importantly, PBR2 prohibits any enforcement
ac on for viola on of a NOTAM (a) if that NOTAM
is not available through the established repository
before the beginning of the flight or (b) if that
13
to the airman. There is an excep on in the PBR2 for
NOTAM viola on enforcement ac ons that directly
relate to na onal security. Un l the PBR2 has been
enacted, its protec ons do not exist. So, ensure your
preflight includes a complete review of all applicable
NOTAMs, as you have undertaken to date.
The need for NOTAM revisions is seen by many as
overdue and much needed.11 Kansas Air Na onal
Guard Crew Chief Skylar Caldwell is a new instrument
pilot and says,
“I’ve begun looking more in depth
into NOTAMs at airports that I’m flying
to and from, but I quickly learned the
system is flawed ... hugely. When I
have to dig through pages and pages of
NOTAMs on things like a new tower
being built or a TACAN azimuth out,
etc. ‒ all things I would consider low
priority ‒ it leads to missing the
important ones like snow plow opera‐
ons or closed runways because they
are buried pages deep. It scares the
crap out of me that I’m going to miss
something!”
Others, however, do not see the need for NOTAM
improvements in the same light. Lloyd Par n, Airport
Manager at the Augusta Municipal Airport in Augusta,
Kansas, works with the NOTAM system regularly and says,
“I frequently file and use the NOTAM system
as an Airport Manager and also as a pilot. I really
cannot say much bad about the system, as Lock‐
heed Mar n has worked very hard to make the
system more user friendly since it took over the
NOTAM system from the FAA. What does remain
an issue, is pilots who fail to read NOTAMS, or
ask about NOTAMS during a Standard Briefing
(only applies if they request a Standard Brief). I
am a commercially rated pilot with several thou‐
sand hours flight me under my belt. I always
make sure to get NOTAMS before a flight, and
ask enroute for updates at the des na on.…
Yes, the system is complex, but it works most of
the me.”
Whether it’s a test hop around the airplane patch or the first leg of a cross country journey, always check the NOTAMs.
Con nued on page 29
15
One thing the general avia on community can
agree upon is that safety is paramount. Here’s the
perplexing thing: we know there is much room to
improve safety via the NOTAM system and that the
technology exists to make these improvements. So,
what’s the hold up?
Wendy Mia Pardew is an avia on a orney based
in Orlando, Florida. You can find her on LinkedIn or
via email at [email protected].
1 Pilot’s Bill of Rights, Pub. L. No. 112‐153, 126 Stat. 1159 (2012). h ps://www.congress.gov/bill/112th‐congress/senate‐bill/1335/text?
overview=closed, accessed February 5, 2016. 2 h p://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/sports/FAA‐Tracks‐Four‐Airspace‐Viola ons‐During‐Super‐Bowl‐368025941.html, accessed February
9, 2016. 3 h ps://www.ainonline.com/avia on‐news/business‐avia on/2016‐02‐01/accidents‐february‐2016, accessed February 10, 2016. 4 h p://www.newschannel6now.com/story/31146425/sa ‐weighs‐in‐following‐plane‐diverted‐from‐wichita‐falls‐regional‐airport, accessed
February 10, 2016. 5 14 CFR § 91.103, Preflight ac on (2016), h p://www.ecfr.gov/cgi‐bin/text‐idx?rgn=div8&node=14:2.0.1.3.10.2.4.2, accessed February 10,
2016. 6 Pilot’s Bill of Rights, Pub. L. No. 112‐153, § 3, 126 Stat. 1159 (2012). h ps://www.congress.gov/bill/112th‐congress/senate‐bill/1335/text?
overview=closed, accessed February 5, 2016 7 Pilot’s Bill of Rights, Pub. L. No. 112‐153, § 3, 126 Stat. 1159 (2012). h ps://www.congress.gov/bill/112th‐congress/senate‐bill/1335/text?
overview=closed, accessed February 5, 2016. 8 Pilot’s Bill of Rights, Pub. L. No. 112‐153, § 3, 126 Stat. 1159 (2012). h ps://www.congress.gov/bill/112th‐congress/senate‐bill/1335/text?
overview=closed, accessed February 5, 2016. 9 h p://www.rtca.org/Files/Commi ee%20Mee ng%20Summaries/Summary%20of%20November%207,%202013%20Mtg%20FINAL%20w%
20a ch.pdf , accessed February 5, 2016. 10 Pilot’s Bill of Rights 2, S. 571, 114 Cong. (2015), h ps://www.congress.gov/bill/114th‐congress/senate‐bill/571/text, accessed February 5,
2016. 11 h p://www.ainonline.com/avia on‐news/blogs/ain‐blog‐notams‐s ll‐incomprehensible, accessed February 16, 2016.
This ar cle is intended to provide an overview of an avia on law issue. It is for general informa onal and educa onal purposes only. The ar cle is not offered as and does not cons tute legal advice or legal opin‐ions. You should personally contact an a orney to obtain advice with respect to any par cular issue or problem. Hyperlinks to websites are provided as a convenience to assist readers and are not intended to suggest sponsorship, affilia on or associa on with, or legal authoriza on to use any trade name, registered trademark, logo, legal or official seal, or copyrighted symbol that may be reflected in the links.