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Notam Software Reviews

I had an article published in Sailplane and Gliding, April-May 2007, reviewing various examples of Notam software, in particular software designed for glider pilots. Obviously software undergoes updates and improves with time, and that article will eventually become out of date. Therefore this section is intended to include descriptions of these updates, new reviews of similar products and, after the issue is sold out, a copy of the original article itself. And of course I can expand on other features of the programs without worry about using up too much space in S&G.

At the present moment my web site is undergoing a complete redesign. So if at times this section looks rather different to the rest of the site or a bit bland, it is because I don't want to continually be changing it to match every small change in the upcoming new design.

The following products were mentioned in the original article: -

NotamView v0.8.2 ~~~ NavPlot v0.3.2 ~~~ SPINE v3.7 ~~~ NotamPlot v2.1

The Review

The original Notam Software Review article, as a Word doc. As the images in the S&G article were a bit small, these links should make things a bit clearer for you.

NotamView - setting a task (in dark blue) with a Notam highlighted (orange and green) and described bottom left.
(Click the image to force the browser to display it full size.)

NavPlot - configuration / control panel and the typical output, in Adobe Reader

SPINE - the over-crowded interface and the interactive map, showing one of the pop-up info boxes

NotamPlot - setting a task (in green) with a Notam highlighted and described bottom left

Updated Products

Well, I have to congratulate NotamView - the latest update has been released one week before the article appeared in print, and thus made it instantly out of date. A quick summary of the changes follows, and I will add more when I get a chance to play with it.

Changes to NotamView

Version 0.9.0 was released on 23rd of March 2007. It now includes, in response to many requests (including some from me), the important ability to handle AATs, with the sectors drawn on screen so you can see what problems are in each area. For power pilots , VORs have been added as well, so those who navigate via them can keep track of what warnings they will meet en route. Equally important, the airspace files have been updated, as has the BGA TP list (now the 2007 release).

Okay, I have had a play with NotamView 0.9. The task setting option is now a tabbed view, allowing selection of ordinary tasks and AATs. In both cases you can either just type in the trigraph or, if you cannot remember it, right click in the box and select it from a pop-up window which has a drop-down list of all the TPs. To set the AAT's sectors, just enter the minimum radius (usually 500m, the normal beer can) and the maximum radius. If it is not a circular area, enter the two radials (the order you enter them in depends on where the sector is relative to the track in AND the track direction). When you click on Draw, the task is added to the map, which auto-scales. If you don't like the way the task looks, alter it and click Draw again and it is updated. The pop-up windows are not modal, so you can swap between them when planning the task, and then close them when you are happy.

Zooming in on the map shows the TP names but only when there is enough room to show them without adding excessively to screen clutter. you can choose between trigraph and the full name under options.

SPINE 3.7

I didn't mention in the original review that in SPINE 3.7, when you zoom out of the map view, the number of TPs that are displayed is reduced to prevent the display becoming impossible to read due to screen clutter. This enables you to have a rough idea of where things are, and thus choose the correct place to zoom in on, where upon more TPs are revealed. The same is true if you choose to display ICAO airfileds. The automatic update function has now been tested and shown to work - I have just been prompted in a pop-up to download (automatically) the latest TP list.

Important

The source of notam information used by most such programs changed suddenly in May 2008, with no notification to the software writers. So all the above products suddenly just stopped working. They have now been updated, use the EAD database and work again. Some authors have taken the opportunity to revise their programs, others haven't, so check the version numbers - NotamView has reached V1.0.0 and now uses Java 1.5, Spine is now V4.5, Navplot is V0.4 and NotamPlot is V2.3.

Update 2009

The EAD database has changed the log-in system, again, and all programs stopped working for a while.

Spine has been upgraded to V4.9, and can get through the changed log-iin system. After installing th enew version, it worked okay first time.
NotamView, my choice as the best overall, is currently working on getting through the log-in barrier, while the current version, V1.0.0 still can't log in.
NavPlot V0.4 can't get in, but a new version, V0.5.1 is now available, which can. But first, you must register with EAD, as stated on the NavPlot site. It takes about two minutes to register, and they send you an email with your username and password, which you then enter into NavPlot. Then it works immediately.
NotamPlot is at V2.4 and has a technical problem at present with some versions of Java, but they hope to fix it soon. But if you have the correct version of Java, you simply re-enter your AvBrief registration details, and things spring to life again.

I will soon be adding some reviews of other Notam software that was not mentioned in the original article, so do come back in a week or two's time. This will include some products that may be more suitable to pilots in general aviation, and not just glider pilots.

At a future date I may add new pages covering aviation software in general.