Paul Roddy
GEOG 583
Lesson 4 Term Paper
February 3, 2015
Pilots are required to have awareness of published Notice to Airmen (NOTAM). However obtaining such
information tends to be more difficult for pilots who operate out of smaller or remote air fields or pilots
are simply avoiding the task of opening the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) website and looking
up NOTAMs or have sophisticated, costly devices that are pull only. Statistics show within the
Washington DC Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA), there were 234 violations in 2014. To amplify the 2014
data, the SFRA is a restricted airspace designated by law, hence permanent. A TFR area can emerge
almost anywhere in the US and Canada when VIPs visit a particular city, sporting events, disaster areas,
etc. If a pilot violates a TFR they may receive a “pilot deviation” (a sort of traffic ticket for pilots), which
could affect their license status especially if they are a professional pilot who may receive a violation
either on the job, or during off time if they are operating an aircraft for leisure.
This project will focus on the challenges associated with real time dissemination of Notice To Airmen
(NOTAM) to pilots, in particular private pilots via mobile device; email, SMS (short message service),
MMS (multimedia message service), Notification, and GPS, using employer furnished devices or
employee selected (private BYOD) devices seamlessly, using either pull or push style of consumption.
The report highlights the user needs of those who require real time information sharing from public
domain to the private sector and technology applicable for dissemination of geospatial information (in
this case graphic Temporary Flight Restrictions or TFR data), in multiple channels allowing pilots to
choose between email, SMS, MMS, or upload to GPS.
Having the ability to acquire NOTAMs directly to their cellular (smart or feature) phone would allow
pilots to gain better situational awareness while planning flights and/or during flights in real time, and
other better outcomes. This would most certainly help prevent airspace infringements.

The Issue
o Pilots continue to violate restricted airspace
 Pilots are not getting notified
o Pilots are receiving “pilot deviations”
o FAA managers and controllers are burdened having to call airports to notify Fixed Base
Operations (FBO) of TFRs
o Public risk to safety

The Business Value
o For FAA
 Maintaining safety of flight
 Costs associated with investigating and prosecuting pilots who violate restricted
airspace
 Eliminate the need for FAA controllers to make hundreds of phone calls to local
airport FBO
o
o
o
For pilots
 Avoidance of prosecution
 Reduce liabilities
 Avoid negative employment repercussions if pilot is also a professional pilot
For the military
 Avoid taking tactical action and associated costs
 Avoid unnecessary risk to fighter pilots engaging in intercept
For Public
 Saving tax dollars associated with government intervention
 Improved safety

The Solution
o Provide a free government to citizen (G2C) application that blanket broadcasts
NOTAM/TFR information to smart or feature devices across multiple, and cross channel
using push or pull style of consuming information with device independence with
ownership

Who are the stakeholders
o Pilots
o FAA
o Military
o Public

Compelling reasons
o Trends in technology can make the solution possible in a cost effective manner
o Status queue is no longer a good option