Another NOTAM stupidity

[Roy Smith]

I just discovered an evil stupidity in our notam system, far more evil and
stupid than anything I've seen before.

I was doing a BFR for somebody today. I checked the notams and found these:

!ISP 04/002 IGN R5206 ACT WEF 0604041300-0604042230
!ISP 03/059 IGN R5206 ACT WEF 0604031900-0604032230

(plus another similar one for today). During the chart review part of the
BFR, I pointed to R-5206 and asked if it was hot today. He did all the
right stuff about looking up the data on the chart, but said he hadn't seen
the notam when he got his duats briefing. Hmmmmmm. I looked at his
briefing output, and sure enough it wasn't there. I ran my own, and it
came up. Very strange.

Then I figured it out. R-5206 is within 25 miles of HPN (I get 22 miles by
my trusty AOPA Air Aide). He asked for an area briefing with a 25 mile
radius. I asked for a 50-mile radius. The problem is that R-5206 is filed
under IGN, which is 36 miles away! But how would anybody know that???

Then I figured the duats computer may be stupid enough to make that
mistake, but surely a well-trained FAA International Automated Flight
Service Station Pilot Weather Briefer human type person would be more
clever. So I had him call 1-800-WX-BRIEF and put it on speaker. He asked
for an area briefing, 25 mile radius around HPN. Sure enough, no mention
of R-5206. Then he asked specifically about R-5206, and the briefer says,
"Yup, it's hot until 8:00 PM tonight".

This is a broken system.

[Bob Fry]

I don't think I'd trust an FSS briefer to be current with restricted
areas; I'd always call Approach and ask them.