NOTAMs for Drone Pilots, Explained

A NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) is a short-notice aviation message: a temporary flight restriction for a large event, a state visit or a military exercise, a new crane or wind turbine, closed airspace, parachute jumping. None of it appears on a geozone map, and all of it applies to drones too. This page explains how to read a NOTAM and where to get the ones that affect your launch site.

Check NOTAMs for your location

Why NOTAMs matter for drones

Official geozones — DIPUL in Germany, and the equivalent national services elsewhere — describe the permanent picture. Everything short-notice travels by NOTAM instead, and breaching a flight restriction set up that way is just as much an offence as flying over a nature reserve. Typical cases for drone pilots: a funfair with a temporary restricted area, a military exercise, a crane at the railway station, a model airfield running special operations, a parachute drop zone at the weekend.

How a NOTAM is put together

NOTAMs come in ICAO format and look cryptic at first glance. The lines that matter:

  • Q line: the FIR (EDGG for Langen, say), a subject code, traffic type (I/V), purpose, scope, lower and upper limit in flight levels, and at the end the coordinates with a radius in nautical miles — 5030N00815E005 means 50°30′ N, 8°15′ E, 5 NM.
  • A): the aerodrome or FIR affected. B) and C): start and end in UTC, formatted YYMMDDHHMM. D): a schedule, if it only applies at certain times.
  • E): the plain text — this is where you find out what is actually happening (“TEMPO RESTRICTED AREA … UAS FLIGHTS PROHIBITED”). F) and G): lower and upper limit (GND, SFC, FT AMSL, FL).

For drones, essentially only NOTAMs with a lower limit of GND or SFC and a radius around your position are relevant. One with a lower limit of FL100 does not concern you.

Where drone pilots get NOTAMs

  • The national AIS portal (DFS in Germany): official and complete, but raw format and behind a login.
  • ICAO/Eurocontrol briefing: built for aeroplane pilots and sorted by aerodrome — awkward when what you have is a point in a field.
  • Hoverpoint: queries the NOTAMs around your position, filters out everything that only affects higher airspace, turns the code into plain language and sorts by distance — on the map in the app and in the browser airspace check.

Where the NOTAM readout stops

NOTAMs without a clear area of effect — FIR-wide ones, for example — only show up in Hoverpoint if they are near you. The plain-language version is a reading aid: in case of doubt the original text applies, and you can expand it in Hoverpoint at any time. One more thing: police and rescue operations usually have no NOTAM at all. You never fly over those.

Frequently asked questions about NOTAMs

Do NOTAMs apply to drones?

Yes. A restricted area set up by NOTAM applies to every aircraft, and that includes drones in the open category. Ignoring one risks a fine and, in the worst case, endangering manned traffic.

How long is a NOTAM valid?

Lines B) and C) give the start and end as UTC timestamps. Many NOTAMs that matter to drone pilots last only hours or days — an event, for instance. Hoverpoint shows only the NOTAMs that are valid at the moment you query.

What does “UAS” mean in a NOTAM?

Unmanned Aircraft System — the technical term for a drone. If the plain-text line says “UAS FLIGHTS PROHIBITED” or “UAS ACTIVITY”, that NOTAM concerns you directly.

Does Hoverpoint show NOTAMs outside Germany?

Yes. The NOTAM query works worldwide through the ICAO data, and the plain-language explanation applies to every message.

Try everything for free: Hoverpoint for Android and iOS, or straight in your browser at web.hoverpoint.info.

Note: this page reflects the situation as of September 2026 and is neither legal advice nor an official clearance. The regulations in force at the time of your flight are what count.