Jerry Carter
Well Known Member
I had a recent educational experiance which I thought I would share with those that fly instrument approaches into small airports. Last weekend I went from my home airport near Memphis into I66, Clinton airport in southern Ohio. It was medium nasty IFR from beginning to end. I did my usual scouting of the weather on the computer, then called the Jackson FSS for a "standard" briefing and filed my flight plan.
The trip proceded uneventfully all the way to the approach portion, at which time the Dayton approach controller informed me that the GPS 21 approach that I was ready to do had been notamed out as "not authorized." I had to flip pages and then mentally prepare for the VOR-A approach into Clinton. Why did I not get this during my preflight briefing, one might ask? The answer is, I didn't ask! I have been too reliant on the briefer to give me all the information that I need.
Here's the point. If you plan a flight into an unfamiliar airport, you will not necessarily get all applicable notams from a briefer. You WILL get them if you use DUATS, but if you happen to be in a place where you don't have internet access, you must ask the briefer to put down the phone, pick up a publication called NOTAP (notices to airmen publication) and check for the notams on your particular destination. This is because there are notams which have existed FOR YEARS which have been purged from the computer database and now exist only in written form. This affects things such as my approach, or other details such as increased minimums, etc.
I guess I should have read the July issue of "IFR Refresher," which was sitting on my nightstand at home when I got back, because there's an aritcle about this very topic in there called "Notam Neverland."
The trip proceded uneventfully all the way to the approach portion, at which time the Dayton approach controller informed me that the GPS 21 approach that I was ready to do had been notamed out as "not authorized." I had to flip pages and then mentally prepare for the VOR-A approach into Clinton. Why did I not get this during my preflight briefing, one might ask? The answer is, I didn't ask! I have been too reliant on the briefer to give me all the information that I need.
Here's the point. If you plan a flight into an unfamiliar airport, you will not necessarily get all applicable notams from a briefer. You WILL get them if you use DUATS, but if you happen to be in a place where you don't have internet access, you must ask the briefer to put down the phone, pick up a publication called NOTAP (notices to airmen publication) and check for the notams on your particular destination. This is because there are notams which have existed FOR YEARS which have been purged from the computer database and now exist only in written form. This affects things such as my approach, or other details such as increased minimums, etc.
I guess I should have read the July issue of "IFR Refresher," which was sitting on my nightstand at home when I got back, because there's an aritcle about this very topic in there called "Notam Neverland."