NOTAMs – Live Notices to Airmen

Summary: Reading live NOTAMs on the map, in plain language, and the special-interest sub-layers for flypasts, exercises, fast jets and tanker activity.

Switch on NOTAMs to see live Notices to Airmen plotted on the map, sourced directly from the NATS PIB feed and kept up to date automatically. Each notice has its own map icon, and notices are split into categories so you can focus on what matters to you:

• Danger/Restricted — notices relating to danger areas or restricted airspace activity.
• Warnings — general airspace warnings.
• Aerodrome — notices specific to a particular airfield (these also appear in that airfield’s own popup — see the Airfields, Airbases & Heliports article).
• Other — everything else that doesn’t fit the above. Air displays, exercises and the like are no longer listed here: they are events (see below).

In Plain Language

A NOTAM’s text is shown as prose: the ICAO abbreviations spelt out, coordinates as degrees, minutes and seconds, heights as “ft above mean sea level” or “above ground level”, radius phrases as “within 1.65 nm of”, times as “22:00–06:00 UTC”. Location codes and identifiers stay in capitals, and the message as issued stays under an As issued fold. The same decoding is used in the airfield popup’s NOTAMs tab.

Special-Interest Sub-Layers

Within NOTAMs, four sub-layers surface specific types of notable activity automatically, so you don’t have to read every notice to find them:

• Royal/VIP — royal and VIP aircraft movements. Flypasts that are currently in progress are highlighted live in the list, with their route plotted as a waypoint track on the map.
• Exercises — announced military exercise activity.
• Fast Jet — fast-jet activity and display flying.
• AAR NOTAMs — tanker and refuelling activity notices.

Each sub-layer can be switched on independently, so you can, for example, watch only for flypasts without the rest of the NOTAM noise. Selecting one event hides the others on every event layer so its route and areas stand alone — see Aviation Events.