NOTAMs – Live Notices to Airmen

Summary: Reading live NOTAMs on the map in plain English, and how notices are sorted into danger, warning, aerodrome and event categories.

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

• Danger/Restricted — danger areas, restricted and reserved areas, firing, demolition and the like.
• Warnings — general airspace warnings: model flying, drones, balloons, parachuting, lasers, fireworks, GNSS jamming, obstacles.
• 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.

The category comes from the notice’s own subject code, the two letters the issuing office assigns to say what a notice is about, with the wording used to settle anything the code leaves open. Air displays, flypasts, exercises, fast-jet training and refuelling notices are shown in the Events section instead; see Aviation Events.

Plain English

Each notice’s popup reads the NOTAM in plain English: abbreviations spelt out, coordinates written as degrees, minutes and seconds, heights as feet above mean sea level or above ground level, and times as UTC. The message exactly as issued sits under an As issued fold for those who read the shorthand.

The Tools menu also has a table view of every current notice; see NOTAMs (Table View).