How to Read a NOTAM as a Drone Pilot

Por Equipo de UAV Meteo · Actualizado el 24/9/2026 · 7 min de lectura

A NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions, previously Notice to Airmen) is how aviation authorities announce temporary changes to airspace: a restricted area activated for an event, a military exercise, a crane near an airport, a firefighting operation. For drone pilots, the NOTAMs that matter are the ones that restrict airspace down to the ground near where you fly. The format was designed for manned aviation and is hard to read at first, but only a few fields decide whether a notice affects you.

This guide walks through one example, field by field.

An example NOTAM

The notice below is an illustration in the standard ICAO format used across Europe and much of the world, not a real notice:

B0412/26 NOTAMN
Q) LGGG/QRTCA/IV/BO/W/000/040/3758N02343E003
A) LGGG B) 2610031000 C) 2610031400
E) TEMPORARY RESTRICTED AREA ACTIVATED WI 3NM RADIUS OF
375800N 0234300E DUE TO AERIAL WORK. UAS FLIGHTS PROHIBITED.
F) SFC G) 4000FT AMSL

Line by line

The header: B0412/26 NOTAMN

The series letter, number and year (B0412/26) are the notice's ID. NOTAMN means a new notice; NOTAMR replaces an earlier one and NOTAMC cancels one. If you see a NOTAMR or NOTAMC, the NOTAM it refers to no longer applies as written.

The Q-line: a summary in code

Q) LGGG/QRTCA/IV/BO/W/000/040/3758N02343E003 packs the whole notice into slash-separated parts:

Part Here Meaning
FIR LGGG The flight information region that issued it (here, Athens)
Q-code QRTCA Letters 2–3 are the subject (RT = temporary restricted area); letters 4–5 are the status (CA = activated)
Traffic IV Relevant to both IFR and VFR flights
Purpose BO Included in pilot briefings; operationally significant
Scope W A navigation warning covering an area, not an aerodrome
Lower / upper 000/040 Flight levels, in hundreds of feet: from the surface to about 4,000 ft
Centre and radius 3758N02343E003 37°58'N 23°43'E, radius 3 nautical miles

Useful Q-codes for drone pilots include RT (temporary restricted area), RR (restricted area), RD (danger area), RP (prohibited area) and WU (unmanned aircraft activity). The Q-line limits are rounded to whole flight levels, so use items F) and G) for the exact heights.

Where and when: items A), B) and C)

  • A) is the location: an aerodrome or, as here, the FIR.
  • B) and C) are the start and end times in the form YYMMDDHHMM, always in UTC. 2610031000 is 3 October 2026 at 10:00 UTC. In Greece, where summer time is UTC+3 until the last Sunday of October, this window runs from 13:00 to 17:00 local time.
  • C) can also say PERM (permanent) or end with EST (the end time is an estimate and may be extended or cancelled by another NOTAM).
  • An optional D) item limits the notice to a schedule, for example DAILY 0600-1500. Without a D) item, the notice applies continuously between B) and C).

Getting the time zone wrong is one of the most common mistakes. A restriction ending at 14:00 UTC ends at 14:00 in London in winter, 15:00 in summer, and 17:00 in Athens in summer.

What is happening: item E)

The plain-language text, written with standard contractions: WI (within), NM (nautical miles), SFC (surface), UFN (until further notice), DLY (daily), H24 (continuous). One nautical mile is 1.852 km, so the 3 NM radius here is about 5.6 km.

How high: items F) and G)

This is the part that decides whether a NOTAM affects a drone, and it is easy to misread.

  • SFC or GND as the lower limit means the restriction starts at the ground. Any drone flight inside the area is affected.
  • AMSL (above mean sea level) limits are measured from sea level, not from the ground where you stand. AGL limits are measured from the ground.
  • FL (flight level) values are pressure altitudes in hundreds of feet; for drone flying, they only matter when the lower limit is a flight level and your terrain is very high.

The AMSL trap. Suppose a NOTAM's lower limit is 1000FT AMSL and you are standing on a hill at 800 ft above sea level. The restriction starts only 200 ft (about 60 m) above you. A drone climbing to 120 m would enter it, even though "1,000 ft" sounds far above any drone. Always subtract your ground elevation from an AMSL limit.

TFRs in the United States

In the US, Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) are a type of NOTAM, usually issued by the FAA as "FDC" NOTAMs, for wildfires, VIP movements, stadium events, disaster areas and space launches. Part 107 pilots must comply with them (14 CFR 107.47), and the pre-flight assessment in 14 CFR 107.49 explicitly includes "local airspace and any flight restrictions." The FAA's TFR list shows the active ones on a map.

Where to find NOTAMs for your flight

  • US: the FAA's NOTAM Search and TFR list, or the B4UFLY app.
  • EU and UK: your national aeronautical information service (AIS) publishes NOTAMs and pre-flight bulletins. Permanent drone restrictions are usually published separately, as UAS geographical zones on the national drone map, so check both.
  • Elsewhere: your national aviation authority's AIS or its official drone app.

Our Airspace & no-fly zones page links to the official tools by region.

Decoding a NOTAM with UAV Meteo

Paste NOTAM text from any official source into our NOTAM Reader. It splits the Q-line into its parts, labels each item from A) to G), and expands the contractions in the E) text into plain English. It does not fetch NOTAMs for you and it does not convert times. Times stay in UTC, so convert B) and C) to your local time yourself.

A NOTAM check that takes two minutes

  1. Search NOTAMs for the area and date of your flight, not just the nearest airport.
  2. For each notice, check the area first: are you inside the radius or polygon?
  3. Check the time window in UTC, and the D) schedule if there is one.
  4. Check the lower limit against your maximum height, subtracting your ground elevation from AMSL values.
  5. Read E) for anything that mentions UAS, drones or model aircraft specifically.
  6. Check again on the day. NOTAMs are often issued or changed at short notice.

FAQ

Do I need to check NOTAMs as a recreational pilot?

The rules differ by country, but every framework expects you to respect temporary restrictions, and you cannot respect a restriction you did not look up. In the US, TFRs apply to recreational flyers as well as Part 107 pilots.

A NOTAM mentions an airport 20 km away. Does it affect me?

Only if its area covers your location. Many NOTAMs listed under an aerodrome concern runways, lights or navigation aids and have no effect on drone flights elsewhere. Scope A in the Q-line means the notice concerns the aerodrome itself.

What if the NOTAM has no altitude limits?

Some notices, such as those about runway works or lighting, have no F) and G) items because they concern something on the ground. For airspace notices without a lower limit, assume it starts at the surface and check with the authority that issued it.

Sources

This guide explains the NOTAM format for planning. It is not a pre-flight briefing: always get current NOTAMs from an official source before you fly.