SkyDemon Forums

Clearer means of user knowing if VFR or IFR flight rules have been used for purposes of MSA and NOTAMs.

http://forums.skydemon.aero/Topic32054.aspx

By pauls - 9/3/2020 8:52:48 PM

I'm posting this on behalf of members of PPL/IR Europe
https://pplir.org/

We have been promoting the use of SD as a useful tool for our members and many of us are loyal users.
We have had a good discussion on the PPL/IR Forum about SD. On the back of this we have collated some feature requests we'd like to raise for consideration
I've raised each one in it's own thread to aid Tim Dawson and the SD team to aid/triage them, but include a link below to the key ones we have raised

Ok so so far we have, in order of priority raised:

* Clearer means of user knowing if VFR or IFR flight rules have been used for purposes of MSA and NOTAMs.
* Possible Defect: correct calculation of MSA for legs to account for fly/over/fly by and starting and end points
* Allow for built-in Jepp subscription
* Feature Request: Make PLOG better / more Customisable for IFR eg space for notes,clearances and alignment of Nav aids/frequencies to legs

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This thread covers

Clearer means of user knowing if VFR or IFR flight rules have been used for purposes of MSA and NOTAMs.
This has been raised by one of our other members already and can be viewed here:
http://forums.skydemon.aero/Topic32028.aspx?PageIndex=2#32053

By way of example
Try this at home! Using SkyDemon, first reset by using menu Route/Start Again, then lookup the current NOTAMs at Cardiff EGFF. Can you see one referring to the ILS 12 being out of service?

Now create a route from Cardiff to anywhere else (Bristol will do) and check again. Still nothing? On the Route menu under Flight Details, change Flight Rules from VFR to IFR (or mixed). See it now?

You should see NOTAM 5698/20 which is valid through end 31 August.

There may well be an overall configuration option buried somewhere that overrides this but for me this was quite a big surprise. I have asked three other pilots this question and they all tried it out with the same results.

What is more confusing is that I am sure I saw this NOTAM earlier in the week, and have not set the IFR flight rules option at any time. I wonder if SkyDemon have been reclassifying NOTAMs during the week.

I'd like to check that I've not missed something obvious before reporting it to SkyDemon. I'd like to see the filter mode being clearly displayed at the top of the NOTAM page with the option on that page to change it.

I'm also not interested is seeing the airways displayed for all IFR flights – they are always displayed if you select IFR flight rules. I view airways and IFR as separate modes, with training flights in particular and many shorter IFR flights not requiring airways.

Reading the SkyDemon change history, it looks like this was introduced in May. There was a discussion about it here back in January 2019.

I rely on SkyDemon as my primary source of NOTAM information, particularly for graphic depiction of the areas affected, although I do skim through the AutoRouter briefing packs for longer airways flights. The narrow route brief on the NATS website isn't fit for purpose because it lacks the graphical display.