Greg Esres wrote
One of our local pilots misunderstood a common Notam, as shown below.
He thought the "ADD: From Shelby to RW 17: 3.52 degrees" meant add
3.52 degrees to the final approach course.

How reasonable do you think his interpretation?

For someone coversant with TERPS - not very. For someone who meets
the knowledge requirements for the instrument rating but not much more
- pretty reasonable. Note the context - the runway numbers are
changed (increased). I can easily see how someone might think that
this means the final approach course should also be adjusted, and the
direction and magnitude of the adjustment are consistent with the
runway change.

(BTW, the notam just adds a descent gradient to a NP approach.)

FDC 3/0143 M01 FI/T GENERAL DEWITT SPAIN, MEMPHIS, TN. VOR RWY
16, ORIG...CHANGE ALL REFERENCES TO RWY 16/34 TO RWY 17/35.
ADD: FROM SHLBY TO RW 17: 3.52 DEGREES, TCH 31. ADD NOTE: VGSI
AND DESCENT ANGLES NOT COINCIDENT.

Not exactly plain English, is it?

Michael