If you have a U.S. event, or do training, or towing where there will be a lot of paramotor or paraglider flights, it’s helpful to give general aviation pilots the opportunity to know about it. That’s done by filing a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM). It starts by entering GPS coordinates on SkyVector.com.

Here’s how.

This is for concentrated paramotor or paragliding activities only, not casual flying.

Get the Coordinates

 First you need to get the coordinates from Google maps.

1. Open Google Maps, find your spot, right click on it, select “What’s Here?” [1]

2. Click on the coordinates [2] to put them in the search window [3]. They’ll look like this “26.812343, -81.322626”.

3. Copy the coordinates.

 

SkyVector

1. Go to Skyvector.com.

2. Select “WorldVFR” on the right [1]

3. Mouse and zoom to your site or enter a nearby airport’s 3 letter identifier.

4. Click on “Flight Plan” upper left [2].

Enter the Airport

1. Find the nearest airport and enter its airport identifier in Departure [1]. In this example it’s X14.

2. In the route field [2] paste your site’s coordinates that you copied earlier.

3. IMPORTANT! Delete the space between the coordinates. It’s just after the comma.

Get Course From Airport For NOTAM

1. A course line will be drawn to your site from the airport listing azimuth (or radial) and distance in nautical miles. In this example it’s 091 degrees at 8nm.

2. Record these numbers for your NOTAM.

Get Radial & Distance From VOR

We need to get a radial and distance form the nearest VOR (a navigation aid) whose value nowadays is mostly a marked location on pilot charts. They nearly always have these distinct compass roses around them showing their magnetic North orientation like that at left.

1. Find the nearest VOR, get it’s identifier from the blue rectangle.

2. Insert the identifier in SkyVector’s route field, just to the left of your site’s coordinates. Put a space between them.

3. Hit Enter.

4. A new line will be drawn from the airport to this VOR then to your site.

5. Record the radial and distance from the line. That’s what Flight Service is most interested in.

Establish The Times & Dates

Figure out your dates and times using a 24 hour clock. They may allow entry in local time but may want them in aviation’s standard time, called “Zulu” or “GMT”. Google “Z Time” and it will give the current time. Use that to know how many hours must be added to local to get Z time.

So if you’re flying from noon to sunset, figure out when sunset is and round to the next hour. In Florida, during DST, we add 4 hours to local. So noon is 12+4 or 1600 Z. If sunset is 8:20pm, that’s 2020 rounded to 2100. Convert to Z time, 2100+4 is 2500. That’s 0100 Z the next day which is what goes in your NOTAM.

Filing the NOTAM

1. Write your NOTAM. It must have:

  – Start date and time, end date and time.

  – Radius in nautical miles. 3nmr means 3 nautical mile radius.

  – Altitude range above mean sea level (MSL). Or use “Surface to”. In florida where our example is, it might be something like “Surface to 3000 MSL.

  – Main text like: “Paraglider towing within 3 nmr of LBV 127 degree radial at 8nm from surface to 3000 feet MSL”

2. If you’ll be near an airport, ask if they would add a NOTAM to that airport so pilots going there will know about your operations. It will be a “Pointer” NOTAM referencing the main one.

An example for the above example would be “Paraglider Towing from the surface to 3000 FT MSL LBV 127 @ 8 NM 3 NMR from 2020-07-22 0900 Z to 2020-07-25 1700Z”

3. Call a NOTAM specialist at 1-877-4-US-NTMS (1-877-487-6867) to do the filing. Ask politely for their initials in case you need to modify it. They will need your phone number in case something needs clarification. If you find any errors in this process please send them to the contact.

Enjoy your flying!