NEVER MISS

A CRITICAL

8 tips on how to pick out relevant NOTAMS

NEVER MISS A C RITICAL NOTAM:
8 TIPS ON HOW TO PICK OUT RELEVANT NOTAMS
NOTAMS can be difficult even for experienced pilots. Not only do you have to decode
NOTAMS, but you have to sort through a whole bunch to find the few that are relevant
to your flight.
To make matters worse, if you miss something you could get in trouble with ATC or get
a citation from the FAA.
How do you dig through all the NOTAMs to pick out the ones pertinent to your flight? It’s easy to miss
critical NOTAMS unless you know a few tips.

This guide is going to help you sort through the NOTAMs quickly so you can figure out which ones
apply to your flight.

TIP #1: DISREGARD ALL OBSTACLE NOTAMS.

Yes, I said it, disregard them. This cuts out half the NOTAMs.

If the obstacle was large enough to impact your arrival or departure, the airport would be required to
close the runway. This is especially true for instrument approaches which require obstacle clearance
for certification.

Still uncomfortable disregarding them? Just go through very quickly and look at the height of the
obstacle. If there is anything over 500 feet, pay attention.

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TIP #2: DETERMINE YOUR TIME OF FLIGHT IN UTS/ZULU TIME
PRIOR TO LOOKING AT THE NOTAMS.

Knowing when a NOTAM applies to your flight is a huge problem and it trips up even the most
experienced pilots.

If you know when your flight will take place (the whole flight not just takeoff time), you can cut out a
lot of NOTAMs quickly. Some NOTAMs are published several days before they start and they may not
impact your flight at all.

Note: You should also know that the time grouping on NOTAMS starts big and goes small.

So, it always starts with the year, then month then day, hour then minute.

TIP #3: KNOW WHERE YOU ARE GOING ON THE AIRFIELD

Bring up a picture of the airport diagram as you check NOTAMs. Take a second to plot out the most
likely route you will take to the runway and the FBO when you land. Compare the taxiway closures to
the airport diagram. If you know where you are going you can quickly disregard the million taxiway
closures.

Note: With a lot of taxiway closures during the summer months, I recommend printing out an airport
diagram and scribbling on it. Take the diagram with you in the aircraft.

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TIP #4: MEMORIZE IMPORTANT KEYWORDS

Don’t read the whole NOTAM! You don’t need to. Stop after you see a keyword that doesn’t apply.

Most pilots get frustrated with NOTAMs because they aren’t IFR pilots and half the NOTAMs don’t
apply to them. VFR pilots, can automatically cross off these keywords:

OPD SID STAR IAP

Note: Most of the IFR related NOTAMs are at the bottom of the list.

TIP #5: KNOW YOUR AIRCRAFT’S EQUIPMENT AND CAPABILITIES.

This mainly applies to IFR pilots. You can also disregard a bunch of NOTAMS when you understand
your particular aircraft’s capabilities.

For example, if you don’t have a GPS on board then you can disregard any NOTAM with “RNAV.”
Unless you fly for the airlines, disregard ‘RNP’ and ‘CAT II’ or ‘CAT III’ ILS NOTAMS. If you fly a slow
airplane, disregard most “STAR” NOTAMs.

You get the picture.

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TIP #6: DISREGARD LIGHTING NOTAMS FOR DAY FLIGHTS.

Yup, ignore them all. Sure, a PAPI might be out, but if you can’t land during the day without a PAPI,
you need to practice some basic piloting skills.

Most airport lighting NOTAMs aren’t that important anyway. Over time you will learn to disregard the
ones that say “lighting not standard” and focus on the big ones like PAPI out of service (O/S) or pilot
controlled lighting O/S.

TIP #7: KNOW WHICH NOTAMS WILL AFFECT

YOUR FLIGHT THE MOST:

1. Runway closures

2. Out of service runway lights (if you are flying at night)

3. Change to airport frequencies (these don’t happen often, but are important for safety!)

4. The ILS is out of service

5. Your planned taxiway or FBO ramp is closed

6. Runway conditions (anything less than a 5/5/5 should give you pause)

Everything else is not as important if you accidentally miss it.

TIP #8: CHECK NOTAMS A COUPLE TIMES A WEEK.

The more you check them, the better you get. You must practice digging through irrelevant NOTAMs.
You will, over time, get good at reading them quickly.

So, let’s put it all together looking at Portland (KPDX), a Class C airport.

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CASE STUDY

I hope you have picked up a few tricks you can use to read NOTAMS quickly.
Stay tuned for a resource I’m working on which will answer the most important
question: how does this impact my flight?
In the meantime, enjoy my weekly emails full of useful aviation tips and tricks.

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