[JYO] Washington D.C. incident illustrates weakness of notam system

Washington D.C. incident illustrates weakness of notam system
FAA should make graphical notams available to pilots now

June 20 — In the wake of the inadvertent flight of a Cessna 182 through the 
Washington, D.C. "no fly" area, AOPA is calling on FAA to make graphical 
depictions of restricted areas available to pilots.

 "This pilot made a mistake he shouldn't have," said AOPA President Phil 
Boyer. "On the other hand, the government can and should make it easier for 
pilots to comply with the regulations."

 "In the case of temporary flight restriction areas, a picture is worth at 
least 200 FAA notam words."

 FAA has been working with Jeppesen since February to develop a system to 
create graphical notams - pictures of restricted areas drawn on charts - but 
the agency only intends to make the graphics available to flight service 
station briefers, and does not plan to distribute them to pilots. And there 
isn't a product yet.

 But back in November, AOPA - with the help of Jeppesen - was able to create 
some 86 graphical TFRs in less than 24 hours and post them on its Web site to 
alert pilots to restricted areas over nuclear power plants. 

"There's no good reason why FAA is taking so long," said Boyer, "and even 
less reason to keep the graphics away from pilots."

 AOPA pioneered graphic <A 
HREF="http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/newsitems/2001/010915tfr.html";>notams</A> on 
its website shortly after the September 11 
attacks. The site includes the list of notams establishing the national 
security TFRs, enhanced to allow pilots to easily locate restrictions in 
their state using topical links at the top of the page. In addition, many of 
the TFRs are depicted graphically along with a "plain language" 
interpretation.

 "While we're pleased to provide this service to pilots, it really isn't our 
job," said Boyer. "The FAA is the only official source of this security 
information, and the agency should make it available in an easy to understand 
form."

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