gregscheetah wrote:
I recently had a similiar experience at Ponca City where the FSS said
the ILS was operational during the pre-flight briefing.

Did the briefer specifically say that the ILS was operational, or did
he just fail to mention the GS OTS notam?

Anyway, after landing and reviewing what I had done wrong, I found that
the FSS will not read you all the notams unless you specifically ask.
DUATS will not provide all the notams.

What a F***ed up system. They tells you about unlit cell-phone towers
300 feet AGL 4 miles from the airport, but leave out important stuff
like the GS being OTS. Some of this may have made sense in the days
of teletypes, but it's assinine today. Mapquest gives me more
complete information about my drive to the airport than DUATS gives me
about my flight.

During the review of the flight, I read the notam that was similar to
the one below, I read all the FAA abbreviations list, and I can not
find what, exactly, "S-ILS" means. Just like the notam below, I don't
see where the ILS is OTS? What does "S-ILS" mean?

FDC 5/1241 - FI/T WILLIAMSON COUNTY REGIONAL, MARION, IL. ILS RWY 20,
AMDT 11A... S-ILS MINIMUMS NA. DISTANCE FAF TO MAP 4.57 NM. DELETE
ALL REFERENCE TO MM. WIE UNTIL UFN

The S means "straight-in" (as opposed to circling). I'm looking at
the NOS chart (http://204.108.4.16/d-tpp/0501/05215I20.PDF). It's got
three lines of minimums: S-ILS 20, S-LOC 20, and CIRCLING.

Tearing apart the notam piece by piece, it says:

FDC 5/1241

This is Flight Data Center notam number 5/1241. I think that's just
the 1241st notam issued in 2005.

- FI/T WILLIAMSON COUNTY REGIONAL, MARION, IL. ILS RWY 20,

What approach this applies to; i.e. the approach titled "ILS RWY 20"
at Williamson County Regional airport in Marion IL.

AMDT 11A...

The version of the approach it applies to. If your plate doesn't say
AMDT 11A on it, you're applying the changes to an out-of-date plate.

S-ILS MINIMUMS NA.

The minimums shown in the line titled "S-ILS" in the minimums section
of the plate is not authorized (i.e. may not be used).

DISTANCE FAF TO MAP 4.57 NM.

The distance shown on the profile view from the FAF (JONNY) to the MAP
should be changed from 4.9 NM to 4.57 (bottom-right of the plate).
They leave it to you to work out new timings. At 90 kts, it's a
change from 3:16 to 3:03. There's no information as to *WHY* they
moved the MAP, but if you're still using the old timing, you're going
to drive 15 seconds past the MAP before starting your missed.

DELETE ALL REFERENCE TO MM.

There is no more middle marker. They're de-commissioning MM's left
and right these days, so this should be no surprise. It's also of no
operational consequence that I can think of.

WIE UNTIL UFN

These changes are "WIth Effect Until Further Notice.". That's
probably the reason Jepp decided to issue a new chart. My guess is
that the S-ILS minimums will come back some day, perhaps after some
transmitter or antenna is repaired, and/or some flight testing can be
done. But there's no date scheduled.