FAA site makes finding notams easier

Finding the notams relevant to your planned flights just got easier.

The FAA’s new online search tool streamlines the burdensome and confusing process of wading through scores of safety notices filled with obscure acronyms. The new system offers pilots the ability to filter notams to their own preferences, and it presents the information more clearly by offering plain language.

Pilots might consider bookmarking the website for convenience.

AOPA Air Safety Institute Senior Safety Advisor Bruce Landsberg said the new FAA system makes progress, but he urged the agency to do more.

“If everything is important, nothing is important,” he said. “Prioritization is the key. If I’m flying day VFR, I don’t need to be inundated with changes to IFR procedures or unlit towers.”

When it’s fully complete in late 2015, the FAA says the search tool will make notams easier and quicker to submit, and pilots will be able to retrieve the information on a wide variety of devices.