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B737-ng captain reported a NOTAM at mpto affecting their takeoff runway calculations was confusing and easily misinterpreted.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1399982 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201611 |
| Local Time Of Day | 0601-1200 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | MPTO.Airport |
| State Reference | FO |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | VMC |
| Light | Daylight |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Taxi |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Pilot Not Flying Captain |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 220 Flight Crew Type 7313 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy |
Narrative:
We were assigned runway 03L [at mpto] for departure and determined this would be acceptable based on our flight plan weight. Taxiing out we noticed that aircraft were departing from taxiway G. I reread the NOTAM that stated 8304ft is available for takeoff based on the notamed closure. I asked the first officer [to] run numbers for an intersection G takeoff to be sure. These numbers came back with a runway length of less than 8000 ft. The instructions after the NOTAM makes it appear that the reduction in distance has been included in the 'full length' data. This does not appear to be true. Full length versus G data showed a reduction in max takeoff weight of over 4000lbs. We left with correct data for taxiway G and were within 1000 lbs of max takeoff weight. If we had been slightly heavier and I had not run G data it would be very easy to depart over the max weight for this runway. Twy H has been completely removed and it would be very easy to take the runway at G and assume that you were using the full length. The use of meters in the NOTAM and feet in [our software] makes it almost impossible to trap the error of differing runway lengths. The only reason I noticed was the fact that I pulled both sets of numbers.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: B737-NG Captain reported a NOTAM at MPTO affecting their takeoff runway calculations was confusing and easily misinterpreted.
Narrative: We were assigned Runway 03L [at MPTO] for departure and determined this would be acceptable based on our flight plan weight. Taxiing out we noticed that aircraft were departing from taxiway G. I reread the NOTAM that stated 8304ft is available for takeoff based on the NOTAMed closure. I asked the FO [to] run numbers for an intersection G takeoff to be sure. These numbers came back with a runway length of less than 8000 ft. The instructions after the NOTAM makes it appear that the reduction in distance has been included in the 'full length' data. This does not appear to be true. Full length versus G data showed a reduction in max takeoff weight of over 4000lbs. We left with correct data for taxiway G and were within 1000 lbs of max takeoff weight. If we had been slightly heavier and I had not run G data it would be very easy to depart over the max weight for this runway. Twy H has been completely removed and it would be very easy to take the runway at G and assume that you were using the full length. The use of meters in the NOTAM and feet in [our software] makes it almost impossible to trap the error of differing runway lengths. The only reason I noticed was the fact that I pulled both sets of numbers.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.