There may be a notice at your destination airport about the parade floats on the runway, or the aerial gunnery practice being done from the run-up. Maybe even a NOTAM that they are practicing fire-fighting with large aerial drops of kool-aid. But nobody knows about it right now, and nobody can warn you of this situation. See below:
"About midnight last night, the FAA Notam system crashed," AOPA's Chris Dancy told AVweb early on Friday morning. "Pilots need to know that the system is not being updated, and we don't know at this point how long it will be before it is back on line." Flight service briefers at Lockheed Martin are advising pilots who call for briefings that Notams are not available, Dancy said. The AFSS Web site is also carrying an alert at www.afss.com The system failure affects security TFRs as well as safety-of-flight notices.
So what is a pilot to do? Well, short of paying a visit to FSDO and reviewing the written NOTAMs, your best bet is going to be to lean on local knowledge. For airports, give FBOs or Airport Managers a call (as found in the AF/D or airnav.com), for enroute NOTAMs, the ATC folks will know about the important ones (ie the Disneyland TFR). Feel free to query them, even if you are not receiving services like flight following. For the rest, well, common sense prevails. If there was a skydiving operation last week at Elsinore/Skylark, chances are good this week there will be too.
Be vigilant out there, since a lot of us are flying just a little less informed than we're used to.
Blue Skies, (what? well, okay not at the moment...)
- Mike
