On Feb 26, 1:01*pm, Brian wrote:
reports of turbulence are often a good sign for soaring!
* Why are security NOTAMs typed "caps lock", which seems a poor way to
communicate? Most people receiving an e-mail typed in caps would hit
the delete button.

My guess is, it is a leftover from the days of teletypes that only had
capital letters.

Good points about Notams though, In the US we have gotten some good
resources for quickly identifying TFRS that might affect our flights.
However the Notam system is lagging far behind the TFR System. It is
easy to look at a TFR map and determine all is clear and then find out
the airport in the next town is closed due to an air show.

One of my memorable flights was a Cross country that I got very low on
and was planning on landing in a field. At the last moment I contacted
a very weak thermal and slowly climbed out at about 25-50 ft/min. *The
closest airport was closed for resurfacing, but I call Flight Service
anyway and asked about the airports status. The told me it was closed.
When I asked "How closed? i.e. is a taxiway useable?" they said the
only information they had was "it is closed". *Fortunately I was able
to climb enough to make it the next airport.

I remember an incident on a business trip when a sudden change of plan
required me to fly to an another city ASAP. When I called the FBO
from my hotel asking them to tow my airplane to the front ramp and
fuel it, the lady at the counter just happened to tell me the airport
was closing for a month for runway work starting at 11AM that day.
Where the hell was THAT NOTAM? It was nowhere in the system.

A large tip to a cabbie got me to the airport at 10AM and airborne
just before my airplane got marooned.