I occasionally ask myself why many pilots fail to check the Notices to Airmen (NOTAMs) before departing on a cross country flight. Items that may be crucial to safety will be listed, such as if the Instrument Landing System (ILS) is on the fritz or if obstruction lighting on tall antennas are out of service. It is not a mistake entirely made by students, but more often by airline and corporate pilots. Lighting outages are a usual occurrence on NOTAMs, but now for the not so obvious, the “PPR.”

If the airport is going to be performing maintenance on the longest runway on Tuesday from 1300Z to 2030Z, and your Boeing 737 has a maximum load, then dispatch or the station manager will be requesting the 10,000 ft. runway instead of the available 6,000 ft. one, especially during summer months when aircraft performance is at its worst. I hope they checked the NOTAMs other wise they could be waiting on the run-up pad for up to an hour before a departure can be authorized. Below is what is done when these circumstances may exist.

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