TopSky 2.3 Notam areas with multiple day schedules are not detected beyond the first day

[Ricardo Sousa (1110850)]

I was trying to post this under the current version thread but it's locked.

 

This is from the notamLogD.txt file

A2644/20 NOTAMN
Q) LPPC/QRALW/IV/NBO/W /245/280/4013N00716W030
A) LPPC B) 2008311000 C) 2009041535
D) 31 1000-1200 1330-1530, 01 1000-1200 1330-1530, 02 1000-1200   
1325-1535, 03 0955-1155 1335-1535, 04 1100-1300 1335-1535
E) AIRSPACE RESERVATION WILL TAKE PLACE IN AREA SNOWFALL BOUNDED BY:
403200N 0074500W - 403157N 0064722W - 395337N 0065359W - 395400N 
0074500W - 403200N 0074500W.
APPROVAL SUBJECT TO TACTICAL COORDINATION BETWEEN ACC AND ACC MIL 
SUPERVISOR.
F) FL245 G) FL280

Area SNOWFALL
ACTIVE:200831:200831:1234567:1000:1200:24500:28000:A2644/20
ACTIVE:200831:200831:1234567:1330:1530:24500:28000:A2644/20

A2643/20 NOTAMN
Q) LPPC/QRALW/IV/NBO/W /245/280/4058N00705W041
A) LPPC B) 2008311000 C) 2009041535
D) 31 1000-1200 1330-1530, 01 1000-1200 1330-1530, 02 1000-1200  
1325-1535, 03 0955-1155 1335-1535, 04 1100-1300 1335-1535
E) AIRSPACE RESERVATION WILL TAKE PLACE IN AREA NEVERLAND BOUNDED BY:
411800N 0072300W - 412248N 0062333W - 403157N 0064722W - 403200N 
0074500W - 404350N 0074500W - 411800N 0072300W - EXCLUDING 
LECM FIR.
APPROVAL SUBJECT TO TACTICAL COORDINATION BEWTWEEN ACC AND ACC MIL 
SUPERVISOR.
F) FL245 G) FL280

Area NEVERLAND
ACTIVE:200831:200831:1234567:1000:1200:24500:28000:A2643/20
ACTIVE:200831:200831:1234567:1330:1530:24500:28000:A2643/20

 

[Juha Holopainen]

There is sadly very little standardization in the D and E fields of the NOTAMs. The plugin does in fact detect beyond the first day - at least it did in the past, I may have broken it, who knows. In this case the problem is most likely the schedule extending into September without the month being specifically mentioned. If the D field in the first NOTAM would have started with 

31 1000-1200 1330-1530, SEP 01 1000-1200 1330-1530

(SEP added), I would have expected the plugin to have interpreted it correctly. Now it just sees the 01 as being August 1st, and that being more than 1 day ago, it's being discarded and not even shown in the debug. Parsing the NOTAMs for activation data is always going to be hit and miss.

For example I would expect the following to be parsed correctly:

AUG 28-29 0500-1800, AUG 30 0500-1500, AUG 31-SEP 04 0500-1300, SEP 07-11 0500-1500, SEP 14-17 21-24 0500-1700

but in this, the excluded days would not be interpreted correctly, the area would activate on those days as well:

MON-FRI 0500-1400 EXC APR 10 13 MAY 01 21 JUN 19

(both taken from current Finnish NOTAMs just as examples)

In short, the parser can probably be somewhat improved but it will never catch every possible scenario. If multiple-day schedules are not recognized even within a single month, let me know and I'll look into that more closely.

[Ricardo Sousa (1110850)]

i should know better than expecting notams to be anything close to consistent, it took an airbus vacating a runway to issue a notam with closed taxiways afterall

anyway, I can see where the parser gets it wrong. I'd suggest comparing B) and C) since those are more reliable, and if it extends into the next month then read D) sequentially, when it parses a day lower than the previous day it knows it's talking about the next month. But like you said this is so hit and miss...

It's also not working inside the same month, but this format is a bit different, they coupled some days together

D3208/20 NOTAMN
Q) LECM/QRRCA/IV/BO /W /050/245/3857N00546W079
A) LECM B) 2009091845 C) 2009172230
D) 09-10 14-17 1845-2230
E) LER86B ACT FOR AIR OPERATIONS
F) 05000FT AGL G) FL245

Area LER86B
ACTIVE:200909:200910:1234567:1845:2230:5000:24500:D3208/20

D3207/20 NOTAMN
Q) LECM/QRRCA/IV/BO /W /000/450/3854N00646W028
A) LECM B) 2009091845 C) 2009172230
D) 09-10 14-17 1845-2230
E) LER86A ACT FOR AIR OPERATIONS
F) SFC G) FL450

Area LER86A
ACTIVE:200909:200910:1234567:1845:2230:0:45000:D3207/20

D2809/20 NOTAMN
Q) LECM/QRDCA/IV/BO /W /000/100/3635N00702W026
A) LECM B) 2009150600 C) 2009161900
D) 0600-1900
E) LED129 ACT FOR AIR OPERATIONS
UPPER VERTICAL LIMIT MODIFIED
F) SFC G) FL100

Area LED129

D2807/20 NOTAMN
Q) LECM/QRDCA/IV/BO /W /000/100/3606N00702W022
A) LECM B) 2009150600 C) 2009161900
D) 0600-1900
E) LED122 ACT FOR AIR OPERATIONS
UPPER VERTICAL LIMIT MODIFIED
F) SFC G) FL100

Area LED122

 

[Juha Holopainen]

The results in those cases are also actually as expected - the missing schedules are too distant in the future to be taken into account. Any schedules or their subparts entirely outside [currentday-1] to [currentday+7] will be skipped as irrelevant to reduce the number of activation schedules the plugin needs to check.