The FAA is beta testing its new NOTAM system by giving stakeholders who had a hand in developing it a first look. The new NOTAM Management System (NMS) inputs a modern face on the historic communications tool, which today has 70,000 active NOTAMs. In a news release on Tuesday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the new system will provide “near-real-time data exchange, enabling efficient data flows and better stakeholder collaboration.” The rest of us will be able to use it next February, according to the news release. The system is hosted in the cloud.
The new system was ordered after a nationwide shutdown of the National Airspace System because of NOTAM failure. Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said the limited rollout, which will operate alongside the existing system for the next five months, is beginning ahead of schedule and the full rollout will be on time. The release said the FAA cleared red tape to accelerate implementation of the system. About four million NOTAMs are issued each year.
Who do they consider “stakeholders”? I sure hope it includes AOPA/EAA.
GOAL 1, GOAL2 and GOAL 3 … aka blah, blah and blah. There are 70,000 active NOTAMS and 4 million total / year!. Renaming the NOTAM system the NMS is putting lipstick on a pig and calling it something else. As I frequently say … “The FAA (DOT) … making simple sh … sh … stuff hard since 1958.” Whoa be the pilot who misses one and has an issue; the FAA knows how to cull thru them and hang the perp ASAP (see GOAL 1).
NOTAMS should be in simple, readable language. I was an ATC guy for 38 years, and I never could read one and pick out what I needed. As a pilot, because of that, I seldom researched them before most flights. You can look at a NOTAM for many airports and they contain a ten minute read of mostly just lawyer CYA stuff. My opinion.