What Is a NOTAM? Types, How to Read One, and What Changed in 2025

A NOTAM is a notice carrying time-critical aeronautical information that is either temporary, or not yet printed on a chart, or drawn from another publication. The FAA classifies them as Domestic (NOTAM D), FDC, International or Military. They can be issued up to 7 days before the activity starts. As of 10 February 2025 the acronym means Notice to Airmen again.

Most explanations of NOTAMs are written for airline and instrument pilots, which is why they spend three paragraphs on approach plate amendments and never mention the moored balloon at 510 feet AGL. That balloon is the one that matters to you. NOTAMs are the FAA's channel for everything that changed after the sectional went to print, and a good share of it sits in exactly the slice of sky a drone occupies.

What does NOTAM stand for now?

Notice to Airmen. It has been that twice, with a three-year interruption in the middle.

The 2025 notice is short and unambiguous. It states that the term Notice to Air Missions is changed to Notice to Airmen, that the title of FAA Order 7930.2 changes with it, and that all directives and publications referring to the order must be updated as soon as practicable.

This matters for one practical reason. A lot of study material was written between 2021 and 2025 and still says Air Missions, and a lot of older material never got updated at all. The acronym never changed, the system never changed, and no exam question turns on the expansion. If you see either phrase in a practice bank, it is telling you when the bank was written, not that you have found an error.

Why is a NOTAM issued at all?

Because charts are slow. A sectional in the contiguous United States is revised on a 56-day cycle. A crane goes up in a week. A runway closes overnight. A stadium gets a temporary flight restriction the afternoon of the game.

The NOTAM system fills that gap. The FAA cancels a NOTAM when the information gets published on the chart, or when whatever was temporary returns to normal. So a NOTAM is by definition information your chart does not have yet, which is the entire reason checking one is not optional.

What are the types of NOTAMs?

The Aeronautical Information Manual sets out four classifications, not three. The "three types" you sometimes see quoted is usually someone counting only the domestic ones a general aviation pilot meets most often.

The distinction that carries weight is the second column. FDC NOTAMs are the regulatory ones. A NOTAM (D) telling you a taxiway is closed is information. An FDC NOTAM establishing a temporary flight restriction is a rule, and busting it is a violation.

Two subtypes are worth naming because they show up in question banks:

• Pointer NOTAMs are NOTAM (D)s that point at other aeronautical information. The FAA issues them for TFRs, airshows, temporary special use airspace and major system outages. The keyword in the pointer has to match the keyword in the original.
• Security NOTAMs are FDC NOTAMs covering special security instructions. Domestic ones sit under the location designator KZZZ, and international flight prohibitions under KICZ.

What is a NOTAM (D), and what are the keywords?

Every NOTAM (D) begins its text with a keyword that categorizes the subject. Learn the list and you can triage a page of notices in about ten seconds.

For a remote pilot, OBST and AIRSPACE are the two that earn their keep. OBST is new towers, cranes and tethered balloons. AIRSPACE covers activity including special use airspace, pyrotechnics and unmanned aircraft operations. The rest tell you about a surface you will never touch.

How to read a NOTAM, group by group

Domestic NOTAMs are written in ICAO contractions to keep them short. Here is a real example from the AIM:

!SJT SJT OBST MOORED BALLOON WI AN AREA DEFINED AS 1NM RADIUS OF SJT
2430FT (510FT AGL) FLAGGED YYMMDDHHMM-YYMMDDHHMM

Read it left to right:

That one notice would end a 400-foot job inside that radius, and it appears on no chart.

The contractions do most of the work. CLSD is closed, U/S is unserviceable, ACFT is aircraft, WI is within, CTC is contact, DLY is daily, PERM is permanent, and EST on an end time means estimated, which auto-cancels. The FAA publishes the full approved list in Order JO 7340.2, and the AIM reproduces the common ones.

Here is an airspace example, which is closer to the kind you will actually be dodging:

!MHV MHV AIRSPACE AEROBATIC ACFT WI AN AREA DEFINED AS 4.3NM RADIUS
OF MHV 5500FT-10500FT AVOIDANCE ADZ CTC JOSHUA APP DLY

Aerobatic aircraft, within 4.3 nautical miles of Mojave, between 5,500 and 10,500 feet, avoidance advised, daily. Nothing in that block touches 400 feet AGL, so it does not stop your flight. Being able to reach that conclusion quickly is the skill, not memorizing the contractions.

How a TFR reaches you as an FDC NOTAM

This is the join most candidates miss. A temporary flight restriction is not a separate system. A TFR is issued as an FDC NOTAM, which is why TFRs are regulatory and why they can appear with very little notice.

That has a consequence worth sitting with. If you check a TFR-specific graphical map and nothing else, you are checking one output of the NOTAM system and ignoring the rest of it. The obstruction NOTAM, the airspace activity NOTAM and the unmanned aircraft NOTAM will not be on that map. The relationship runs one way: every TFR is an FDC NOTAM, but most NOTAMs are not TFRs.

For what a TFR actually prohibits and how the different types differ, see TFRs and Special Use Airspace.

Does Part 107 require you to check NOTAMs?

Not in those words, and the distinction is worth getting exactly right.

14 CFR 91.103 is the Part 91 preflight rule, and it explicitly names NOTAMs among the information a pilot must become familiar with. That rule governs manned operations.

14 CFR 107.49 is your preflight rule, and it never uses the word. What it says at paragraph (a)(2) is that before flight the remote pilot in command must assess the operating environment, and that the assessment must include "local airspace and any flight restrictions."

So the obligation is real, it is just phrased as an outcome rather than a method. The FAA tells you to know the flight restrictions. NOTAMs are the system through which the FAA publishes flight restrictions. There is no way to satisfy 107.49(a)(2) about a restriction that exists only as an FDC NOTAM without having looked at NOTAMs, whatever tool you used to do it.

Note also that Part 107 imposes no requirement for you to file a NOTAM for your own operation. Some waivers attach that as a condition. The base rule does not.

Where a remote pilot actually gets them

Four routes, in rough order of how much they suit drone work:

• B4UFLY and the LAANC apps surface airspace restrictions in a map view aimed at drone operators. Fastest, and the least complete.
• FNS NOTAM Search at notams.aim.faa.gov is the FAA's own database, searchable by location identifier or by ARTCC. This is the authoritative source and the only one that shows you everything.
• Flight Service, by phone or through a briefing service, will give you a full preflight briefing including NOTAMs.
• Third-party flight planning apps, which pull the same feed and present it better.

One habit worth building: search the ARTCC for your area as well as the nearest airport identifier. Center-level NOTAMs are where special use airspace, TFRs, GPS interference and unmanned aircraft activity turn up, and a search limited to the field three miles away will miss all of it.

What this means on a working day

You are flying a roof inspection in Class G, four miles from a non-towered field, at 200 feet. Nothing about the site suggests you need to look anything up.

Check anyway, and check the right things. The realistic hazards are an obstruction NOTAM for a crane on the next block, a GPS testing NOTAM that will quietly degrade your position hold, an airspace NOTAM for parachute activity, and a TFR that went up this morning for a VIP movement. None of those are on your sectional. Three of the four are invisible in a map app that only draws controlled airspace.

The GPS one deserves particular attention, because the failure is not legal, it is operational. The NOTAM system uses UNREL for unreliable, MAY NOT BE AVBL and NOT AVBL. A drone that loses position hold over a roof is a different aircraft than the one you launched. Knowing in advance that the interference is scheduled turns a fly-away into a planned manual flight, or a rescheduled job.

This check belongs in the same block of work as the rest of your preflight assessment. See A Practical Remote PIC Preflight Checklist for where it sits in the sequence.

Frequently asked questions

What are NOTAMs called now?

Notices to Airmen. The FAA changed the term to Notice to Air Missions on 2 December 2021, then reverted it to Notice to Airmen on 10 February 2025 through GENOT N 7930.114, which also retitled FAA Order 7930.2. The acronym NOTAM itself never changed, and neither did anything about how the system works.

What are the three different types of NOTAMs?

The AIM actually lists four classifications: NOTAM (D), FDC, International and Military. Sources quoting three are usually counting only the domestic categories a general aviation pilot meets routinely. For a remote pilot the split that matters is NOTAM (D) for advisory information and FDC for regulatory information such as temporary flight restrictions.

How serious is a NOTAM?

It depends on the classification. An FDC NOTAM is regulatory, so flying into airspace an FDC NOTAM has restricted is an enforcement matter regardless of whether you saw it. A NOTAM (D) is advisory, but ignoring one that reports a 510-foot obstruction in your operating area is a collision risk, which is worse than a violation.

What is a Type D NOTAM?

A NOTAM (D), or Domestic NOTAM, covers navigational facilities in the National Airspace System plus all public-use aerodromes, seaplane bases and heliports listed in the Chart Supplement. Its text always opens with a keyword such as RWY, OBST or AIRSPACE that identifies the subject. NOTAM (D)s are informational rather than regulatory.

How far in advance are NOTAMs issued?

The FAA may disseminate a NOTAM up to seven days before the activity it describes begins. That is a ceiling, not a norm. Security-related and rapidly developing restrictions can appear with very little lead time, which is why a NOTAM check done the night before is not the same as one done at the launch site.

Do drone pilots have to check NOTAMs?

Effectively yes, though 14 CFR 107.49 never uses the word. Paragraph (a)(2) requires the remote pilot in command to assess local airspace and any flight restrictions before flight. Since flight restrictions are published through the NOTAM system, there is no realistic way to meet that requirement without checking NOTAMs.

Airspace and flight restrictions make up 20 percent of the Unmanned Aircraft General knowledge test. You can find out where you stand on that area in the free Part 107 readiness assessment.

Sources

• AIM 5-1-3, Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) System
• GENOT N 7930.114, NOTAM Term Change from Notice to Air Missions to Notice to Airmen
• FAA Order 7930.2, the NOTAM order
• 14 CFR 107.49, Preflight familiarization, inspection, and aircraft operation
• 14 CFR 91.103, Preflight action
• FAA, What is a NOTAM?
• FNS NOTAM Search