1. Attendees:

• Chairman briefed on the meeting i.e. to be held on NATMAC terms. Those present were there as a result of an invitation to express the views of their branch of aviation rather the organisation of which they were members.

• Also stated the situation regarding AIS in the UK, the requirements of ICAO Annex 15 and the state responsibilities. CAA responsible to lay down a basic specification, which provided the level of service that it, determines to be safe and usable for all.

• Users must realise that whilst some of them wished to determine the information that they thought was relevant, system also there for the CAA and others to provide the information that they the Users were required to know!

• CAA had presented AIS NATS on 16 Sep with a list of 17 immediate and medium term actions that it required addressing. The immediate actions should be completed ASAP and all others implemented by Spring 2003.

• Chairman was there to listen and steer the debate. Ultimately any decision(s) would be taken by the CAA outside of the meeting taking in account the views of all the user community. Stressed that the meeting was not to dwell on the past but to take the matter forwarded.

• CAA’s intention was to have the changes required of the system functioning to satisfy stated requirements by the beginning of the new GA flying season.

• Phil Bate briefed on the present state of the system most of which centred on the improvement of speed of access to the system and the improved filtering of information.

• Rod Dean stated need to filter the data still further, the need for geographically referenced data and the need for an area brief centred on a site.

• Chris Gould supported these views and reported that an area brief was required by flying schools

• Martin Robinson supported these remarks but wished to know if the CAA considered that NATS had sufficient staff and resources to meeting their obligations under the licence and if the CAA felt that their obligations were being meet. (Such matters were outside the brief of the meeting and not further addressed.)

• Andrew Roche stated the problems faced by the gliding community – no power available in many sites and the need for a structured area brief.

• Rob Bailles-Brown reiterated previous points stressing the need for an aerodrome to have a brief that covered all the FIR and structured in a useable manner i.e. geographically sorted. He also stated that a feed of the data with the Q Line present was vital in order that the NOTAM software solutions previously available and widely used could be restructured and useable. He felt that providing this information would remove many of the problems presented to GA by the ADIMS system.

• Mike Cross and Russell Howton views incorporated many of those given on the various web forums and were in the paper to be considered. They supported the views given in the round table discussion i.e. that there was a need to:

1. Fix that that was now there,
2. Provide an area brief to replace the old A1/A8 briefs,
3. Arrange in geographically order the data
4. Provide a down load of information for peoples’ use with the Q code attached.

a. Annex A - Problems in the site as implemented.

• Meeting agreed that the site seemed to be more stable and faster since the update of the 6^th Oct

• The narrow route brief was working relatively well but needed to give the Flight Level selected and also to give the information provided in geographic order.

• The Area brief was miss-named as it provided information for a complete FIR. There is a need for the system to provide a brief centred on a radius around a given point i.e. an aviation site.

• (The CAA have placed a medium term action on NATS to devise and implement a system whereby ADIMS would contain recognize non-licenced aviation sites.)

• That AIS NATS should instruct Thales to address at once the outstanding issues that were raised in the Annex and those additional ones stated above.

• Implementation of the CAA requirements

• All agreed that this was a fundamental requirement.

• En route Information to be geographical ordered.

• Area information to be provided as suggested in the Annex.

• Needed for gliding organisations, flying schools, aerodromes op rooms,

• Common format, one click solution to provide common format wherever you are.

• (CAA feels that provision of such briefs, also available by fax will provide redundancy to the present system, widen the availability of the information and reduces the need for users to phone AIS.)

• That AIS NATS should immediately contact Thales to address the provision of this requirement.

Annex C - Outline Specifications for downloadable raw NOTAM

• Some disagreement over this one!

• Recognised that for many forum users this is the most important issue!

• Such a requirement is needed in order for software packages such as NOTAMPlot/Pro and others to function.

• Information could be made available and is apparently published on some States’ AIS web sites.

• NATS expressed concerns re liability and wished for guidance from the CAA.

• Other issues such, as safety needs addressing.

• NATS to write to CAA on the whole subject of liability. In meantime JG undertook to refer the matter to the various CAA branches involved. Whilst the work would start immediately no date for a ruling could be given.

• Should CAA be prepared for such information to be issued AIS NATS stated that it could be 12 months before it would be available.

• NATS happy to release information for a regulated value added provider.

• NATS to write to CAA requesting a ruling on the issues involved. CAA to staff as expeditiously as possible.

• Noted the potential for the site to developed

• Misuse of NOTAM – need to sate parameter etc

• Action by CAA and AIS NATS

Annex E - Minor problems requiring attention

• The CAA understands that the AIS NATS accepts these suggestions and intends rectifying them ASAP.

• NATS to implement the changes ASAP

• JG stressed the need for an educational drive to bring to users the importance of reading NOTAM and the understanding of them. The intention is to issue either an AIC or Safety Information Bulletin.

JOHN GENTLEMAN

MANAGER AERONAUTICAL CHARTS AND DATA

CIVIL AVIATION AUTHORITY

22 NOVEMBER 2002