Airspace NOTAM

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Slackyhacky

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Can someone tell me what this NOTAM means, and what are the implications?


!HHR 04/040 KZLA Airspace unmanned aircraft within area defined as 1.5 Nautical miles radius of PGY063024 surface-1,200 feet above ground level avoidance advised Apr 30, 2014 2036Z-permanent
 
Somebody is playing with unmanned aircraft inside a circle that has a center either 24 miles on the 63 degree radial or 63 on the 24 degree radial from the PGY VOR. Or, something completely different.

What could be clearer?
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
Somebody is playing with unmanned aircraft inside a circle that has a center either 24 miles on the 63 degree radial or 63 on the 24 degree radial from the PGY VOR. Or, something completely different.

What could be clearer?
Click to expand...

Pretty sure the radial is always first, so it's 24 miles along the 063 radial. 63 miles would be out of range of the VOR.
 
Slackyhacky said:
Can someone tell me what this NOTAM means, and what are the implications?


!HHR 04/040 KZLA Airspace unmanned aircraft within area defined as 1.5 Nautical miles radius of PGY063024 surface-1,200 feet above ground level avoidance advised Apr 30, 2014 2036Z-permanent
Click to expand...

Looks like there's some drone operations at Camp Morena. It says avoidance is advised; not required to remain clear but probably a good idea.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
Somebody is playing with unmanned aircraft inside a circle that has a center either 24 miles on the 63 degree radial or 63 on the 24 degree radial from the PGY VOR. Or, something completely different.
Click to expand...

The format is fix/radial/distance.
 
register@teamandras.com said:
Is the radial based on true north, or the VOR's rose?
Click to expand...


ALL radials are magnetic. Bearings, too, except for relative bearings. Read the Pilot/Controller Glossary.

We don't use True North for much of anything in the aviation business, except as a step along the way to determining magnetic course.

Bob Gardner
 
Thanks Bob and Roncachamp.

As I now understand it then, the OP's NOTAM means you might want to avoid flying below 1200 ft AGL in the little yellow circle I drew on this chart?

Man, that's cryptic.

notam.jpg
 
The Notam makes sense, but I didn't think UAVs could operate outside of restricted airspace?
 
register@teamandras.com said:
As I now understand it then, the OP's NOTAM means you might want to avoid flying below 1200 ft AGL in the little yellow circle I drew on this chart?
Click to expand...

Maybe. I used SkyVector to plot the PGY063024. Wound up at the tip of the peninsula that juts out into the Morena Reservoir from the north side. Note that that's to the nearest whole radial, nearest whole mile. Not all that precise. That's in the Lake Morena County Park, which seems unlikely to be the site of long term drone activity. But about a mile to the north is Camp Morena, part of Naval Base Coronado. Using the coordinates to calculate the distance, the camp is 24.07 NM from Poggi VORTAC. I'd say that's the point you might want to avoid.
 
Cooter143 said:
The Notam makes sense, but I didn't think UAVs could operate outside of restricted airspace?
Click to expand...

Please decipher for me then -

I'm still a student pilot - still learning why it seems better to speak in unclear language in a field that needs razor sharp precision -

So let's take it part by part

"!HHR 04/040" - What does this mean?

"KZLA Airspace unmanned aircraft" - How about this? Are they defining a new airspace? What is KZLA? Obviously there is an unmanned aircraft, but are they saying it is in a specific airspace? What airspace? Who is manning the unmanned aircraft?

I guess the rest is trying to say where it is. That I understand.
 
Slackyhacky said:
Please decipher for me then -

I'm still a student pilot - still learning why it seems better to speak in unclear language in a field that needs razor sharp precision -

So let's take it part by part

"!HHR 04/040" - What does this mean?

"KZLA Airspace unmanned aircraft" - How about this? Are they defining a new airspace? What is KZLA? Obviously there is an unmanned aircraft, but are they saying it is in a specific airspace? What airspace? Who is manning the unmanned aircraft?

I guess the rest is trying to say where it is. That I understand.
Click to expand...

"!HHR 04/040" - What does this mean? -- To be honest, I don't know. I would guess that HHR airport is either who generated the NOTAM or who is seen as being affected by the NOTAM.


KZLA Airspace unmanned aircraft" -- Los Angeles Airspace, meaning users in and around LA airspace need to be aware.


I guess the rest is trying to say where it is. That I understand. -- That is that part that matters. Plot it, and avoid it. If you can't avoid it for some strange reason, start making some phone calls and asking questions. I would start with HHR airport, see what they know, then call LA ARTCC.

There are things in NOTAMs that don't make sense to me sometimes, but I don't worry about it unless it will impact my flight in some way. The ones that are pertinent that I don't understand, I start searching and asking questions until I get a good answer. If you find an answer to the !, I'd be curious to know. I haven't seen that.

BTW, I downloaded FAA Contractions, and FAA Pilot/Controller Glossary into my ForeFlight Documents. It has come in handy a few times.
 
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Slackyhacky said:
Please decipher for me then -

I'm still a student pilot - still learning why it seems better to speak in unclear language in a field that needs razor sharp precision -

So let's take it part by part

"!HHR 04/040" - What does this mean?

"KZLA Airspace unmanned aircraft" - How about this? Are they defining a new airspace? What is KZLA? Obviously there is an unmanned aircraft, but are they saying it is in a specific airspace? What airspace? Who is manning the unmanned aircraft?

I guess the rest is trying to say where it is. That I understand.
Click to expand...

HHR is the accountability identifier...in this case the Hawthorne FSS (why the still use FSSs that have closed is beyond me). 04/040 is the ID for this NOTAM.

KZLA is Los Angeles ARTCC (ZLA) identifies which center's airspace it is in (there must be some technical reason they added the "K" to ZLA).

The airspace involved is pretty straight forward--1.5 NM around the PGY 063/024, surface to 1,200 ft. AGL.

It doesn't say who is flying the UAV. Why would a pilot need to know?
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
But it's important to not wear out the telegraph key by including extra text to make it readable.
Click to expand...

absolutely correct. if the technology exists to make this NOTAM and others like it more readable then why not use it? seems like the FAA is clinging to the way things used to be rather than embracing the future. yes, I'm a new-er pilot so I'm sure that POV is nothing new to many of you. I'm also a retired govt worker (local and state) so I'm all too aware of the usual govt mindset when it comes to making changes in policy or procedures. but an agency which says one of its primary missions is air safety sure seems to be mired in the muck of yesteryear.
 
A side effect of the terse standardized format is that they are much easier to parse by machine.

Be careful what you wish for. A substantially better goal is to plot these on weather briefing graphics. Machines are not good at parsing plain English. Ever had a Google medical query take you to a porn site?
 
rk911 said:
absolutely correct. if the technology exists to make this NOTAM and others like it more readable then why not use it?
Click to expand...

Rich, the stock answer to your question is that all of our communications need to be ICAO compliant. (ICAO = International Civil Aviation Organization, to which agreements the US has committed us...). Aviators in the boonies do not have the equipment to transmit and receive the verbose translation of the acronyms we use so using them would be a hazard to safety.

Or so they say....
 
I'm pretty sure these notams are made by UAV owners and can be made by any business through a portal on some website. I had that demonstrated to me by some VERY obnoxious Nerd who flies drones out of my local airport. (He reminded me of the nerd from the Polar Express movie.
 
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