NOTAM: the notice that closes airspace overnight
What a NOTAM is, why a zone map is never enough, and where to check before flying.
A NOTAM — Notice to Air Missions, historically Notice to Airmen — is a notice published by a civil aviation authority to flag temporary information essential to flight safety.
It is an ICAO instrument, used worldwide in the same format.
What it changes for a remote pilot
Drone zone maps show permanent restrictions: aerodromes, sensitive sites, national parks, built-up areas. They do not move from one month to the next.
A NOTAM publishes what has just appeared:
- an air display, a competition, a forest fire;
- an official movement closing a sector for a few hours;
- airspace reserved temporarily for rescue operations;
- a ground facility out of service.
⚠️ This is the most common trap, and the most expensive: a zone map checked yesterday can be wrong today. Airspace perfectly open last night may be closed this morning, with nothing changed on the map.
How to read one
A NOTAM is written in a condensed format, in aeronautical abbreviations, which makes it unreadable at first glance. Three elements are nonetheless enough to decide:
- The area — coordinates and radius, or the name of the airspace concerned;
- The period — start and end, in universal time (UTC), not local time;
- The heights — floor and ceiling, which determine whether a low-level flight is actually affected.
UTC is error source number one: in summer, France runs at UTC+2.
Where to check
NOTAMs are published by each country's aeronautical information service. In France the SIA distributes them; other states have their own portals, and the consultation formats vary more than the NOTAMs themselves.
Check flight zones on the map →
That map gives permanent restrictions. It does not replace checking NOTAMs on the day of the flight — and saying so is more honest than letting you believe otherwise.
Going further
- Drone regulations in France.
- VLOS: visual line of sight — the other constraint, independent of zones.