AIS-AIMSG/1-SN No. 17 21/11/08
AERONAUTICAL INFORMATION SERVICES-AERONAUTICAL INFORMATION MANAGEMENT STUDY GROUP (AIS-AIMSG)
FIRST MEETING
Montréal, 2 to 4 December 2008
Agenda Item 8: Guidance material 8.5: Quality
CHANGE PROPOSALS TO NOTAM SELECTION CRITERIA
(Presented by Paul Bosman)
SUMMARY
This study note calls for urgent revision of the NOTAM Selection Criteria as contained in ICAO Doc 8126 and consequential changes to Doc 8400. Revisions to NSC are overdue and the quality of briefing services requires enhancements in order to better meet user requirements and to reflect most recent changes introduced in other ICAO documentation.
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Improvements to the NOTAM Selection Criteria (NSC) are long overdue and the quality of briefing services is dependent on a globally standardised application of selection criteria. Those enhancements will enable the reflection of the most recent changes introduced in ICAO documentation, to better meet user requirements and to ensure optimum quality of services, both for NOTAM processing and creation as well as briefing output.
1.2 This study note calls for urgent revision of the NSC as contained in ICAO Doc 8126 (AIS Manual) and consequential changes to Doc 8400 (Abbreviations & Codes).
2. BACKGROUND
2.1 During 2004 and 2005 an ECAC-wide review of the ICAO NOTAM Selection Criteria was performed by the NSC Focus Group (NSC-FG) under the umbrella of the Eurocontrol AIS Operations Subgroup.
(4 pages) 035aa43be3df1cb4aa1ef4e237d24f05.doc 2 AIS-AIMSG/1-SN No. 17
2.2 In September 2005, the Eurocontrol AI Team agreed to submit the change proposals to the ICAO European Air Navigation Planning Group (EANPG) in order to invite ICAO to amend the ICAO Doc 8126 and to process the consequential changes to ICAO Doc 8400, as required.
2.3 The forty-seventh meeting of the EANPG (29 November to 1 December 2005) noted with satisfaction the extensive work carried out (see para 3) related to the review of the NOTAM Selection Criteria (NSC) and agreed to submit the proposed amendments to ICAO HQ for action, as appropriate. The following conclusion was formulated:
EANPG Conclusion 47/42 – Proposal for amendments of ICAO documentation
That the ICAO Regional Director, on behalf of the EANPG, submit the draft proposal for amendment to Document 8126 regarding the NOTAM selection criteria and operating procedure for AIS dynamic data and the consequential changes to Annex 15 and Document 8400.
Note: The conclusion above also referred to OPADD1 and Annex 15 as at the same meeting a fourth report covering a comparison ‘OPADD versus ICAO’ was presented to EANPG. However, this is outside the scope of this paper.
2.4 It should be noted that since EANPG 47 a delay has been experienced by ICAO and the earlier report content has been partly overtaken by recent changes introduced to ICAO documents 2. It has not been possible to add these to the initial NSC change proposals as the AI Team currently is unable to perform an additional domain-wide review to validate the earlier report. However, latest changes to ICAO documents are traced by ICAO who will therefore be able to define the complete scope of revisions to be performed based on the status quo.
3. CHANGE PROPOSALS IDENTIFIED BY NSC-FG
3.1 The NSC-FG review focussed on the identification of ‘minor changes’ (as opposed to conceptual review) i.e. identification of new codes and overall consistent qualification based on current ICAO procedures to ensure consistency and integration of changing or additional user needs.
3.2 The relevant findings concern primarily ICAO Guidance Material, the ICAO AIS Manual Doc 8126. Despite this fact, some resultant adjustments have been identified in reference to Doc 8400 (Abbreviations & Codes).
3.3 The report of the NSC-FG covered the following deliverables (version 1.0, dated 13/10/05):
D1 (report file attachment A): ‘Change Proposals and Best Practices’: o ‘ Change Proposals to ICAO Doc 8126, Chapter 6, NOTAM Selection Criteria’ containing 60 specific changes to NSC subjects and/or their qualification. o ‘ Resultant ICAO Doc 8400 Changes’ containing 30 proposals for new abbreviations, and 24 proposals to add/delete NOTAM Code Subjects and Conditions. o ‘Recommended Practices for Current Operations’ (no change in ICAO doc) in the cases where harmonisation could be achieved without changing the NSC. In total, 69 proposals for best practice were provided.
1 OPADD – Operating Procedures for Dynamic Data 2 In particular, revisions to ICAO Doc 8400 and the amendment Nr 1 to Doc 8126. 3 AIS-AIMSG/1-SN No. 17
D2 (report file attachment B): ‘Revision Proposals to ICAO Doc 8126, Chapter 6, Appendix B NOTAM Selection Criteria’ proposing clarifications to the application of NSC such as the use of ‘XX’ or ‘TT’ or the filters in general. D3 (report file attachment C): ‘NOTAM Code Index’. Proposal for the reintroduction of a NOTAM Code subject index (decode) to facilitate usability and search by the operators.
3.4 The specific deliverables are not reproduced as part of this study note as they have already been submitted to ICAO HQ. However, they can be made available either by ICAO or by Eurocontrol at the meeting or on request.
4. RECOMMENDATIONS
4.1 Some of the earlier proposals were in the meantime integrated into various elements of ICAO documentation. However, most proposed changes still need to be incorporated as a matter of urgency as to enable consistent service provision.
4.2 Consequently, it is recommended that the following steps and actions should be undertaken:
a) analyse the earlier Eurocontrol reports and progress the changes, as required with a proposed latest implementation date of November 2010;
b) for output related procedures (use of filters in Doc 8126) consider to integrate the most recent draft chapter covering ‘Pre-flight Information Bulletin’ as developed for the OPADD edition 3.0 (see Attachment);
c) consult through the AIS-AIMSG Members once the draft changes are available in order to consult on the changes performed, allowing further domain experts to review and to comment the changes introduced based on operational experience;
d) consult with user organisations to get their contributions concerning the system output, in particular the briefing elements.
5. ACTION BY THE AIS-AIMSG
5.1 The AIS-AIMSG is invited to:
e) note and discuss the content of this study note;
f) invite the ICAO secretariat to progress the revisions as a matter of urgency based on the recommendations outlined in item 4.2; and
g) actively support the review of the redrafted version of the ICAO AIS Manual and other ICAO documents, as required.
Reference: OPADD edition 3.0, chapter 7 ‘Pre-flight Information Bulletin’. Refer to the attachment of the study note covering OPADD. 4 AIS-AIMSG/1-SN No. 17
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