Narrative:

I was PIC of flight. While [we were] on the ground before departure I was performing preflight duties when I noticed on the weather packet that the destination airport AWOS was notamed as out of service. I checked the weather again and saw that the latest weather for the destination was obtained half an hour previously with regular weather reporting all day up to that point. Looking at the taf for I saw that the weather was forecast for VMC and all the reports up until half an hour prior also showed VMC. I discussed this with my first officer and we both thought it was odd that the there was a NOTAM for the AWOS being out of service even though the weather was being reported. We departed with the flight being uneventful. I was pilot flying and the first officer was pilot not flying. Once we were in range; the first officer began the descent check and he obtained the weather for the destination by tuning in the AWOS. We received the weather and noted that it was the most current up to the minute. We concluded that the AWOS was indeed working and we continued with the approach to landing without further incidence. For the departure going to our next destination; the first officer tuned in to the AWOS and we picked up the weather once again. The weather was up to date to the minute with no indications that the AWOS was out of service. Once again; the notams still stated that the AWOS was inoperative. The rest of the flight was uneventful. There seems to be a difference of opinion as to the legality of dispatching and operating a flight to an airport that has the AWOS notamed as out of service. While I understand the need to take all notams seriously; in this situation there was no indication that the AWOS wasn't working or giving out bad data. The weather in the release showed up to date weather from at least half an hour before the packet was printed. On approach we received a complete weather report with all information available that was up to the minute current. The same occurred as we prepared to depart the field. It appears that the opinion exists that this flight should not have been dispatched or operated into that airport because the AWOS was notamed as being out of service; even though there was evidence to the contrary. Perhaps in the future; if a facility or service is notamed out of service; then that service should be turned off so that there is no confusion. Or maybe there needs to be further regulations stating what to do in the event of conflicting reports such as this. A NOTAM that states something that isn't true creates a fair amount of confusion. I have not been able to find any documentation that states that if a facility is showing out of service in the notams then the flight cannot be dispatched. The problem appears to be that the regulations are not clear cut when it comes to this situation. According to our regulations; in order to be dispatched we need current weather for the intended arrival airport. We had that and we had up to the minute weather upon arrival. There have been situations where a navigational facility was notamed as out of service yet come to find out it was working just fine. If something is showing as out of service in the notams then it needs to be turned off completely until that NOTAM is removed otherwise it's a situation of the boy who cries wolf.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: The AWOS at a CTAF airport was NOTAMed inoperative but the flight operated to the airport and discovered it operating normally but later questioned whether it should have been turned off completely to avoid confusion or change regulations to allow its use if it is apparently accurate.

Narrative: I was PIC of flight. While [we were] on the ground before departure I was performing preflight duties when I noticed on the weather packet that the destination airport AWOS was NOTAMed as out of service. I checked the weather again and saw that the latest weather for the destination was obtained half an hour previously with regular weather reporting all day up to that point. Looking at the TAF for I saw that the weather was forecast for VMC and all the reports up until half an hour prior also showed VMC. I discussed this with my First Officer and we both thought it was odd that the there was a NOTAM for the AWOS being out of service even though the weather was being reported. We departed with the flight being uneventful. I was pilot flying and the First Officer was pilot not flying. Once we were in range; the First Officer began the descent check and he obtained the weather for the destination by tuning in the AWOS. We received the weather and noted that it was the most current up to the minute. We concluded that the AWOS was indeed working and we continued with the approach to landing without further incidence. For the departure going to our next destination; the First Officer tuned in to the AWOS and we picked up the weather once again. The weather was up to date to the minute with no indications that the AWOS was out of service. Once again; the NOTAMs still stated that the AWOS was inoperative. The rest of the flight was uneventful. There seems to be a difference of opinion as to the legality of dispatching and operating a flight to an airport that has the AWOS NOTAMed as out of service. While I understand the need to take all NOTAMs seriously; in this situation there was no indication that the AWOS wasn't working or giving out bad data. The weather in the release showed up to date weather from at least half an hour before the packet was printed. On approach we received a complete weather report with all information available that was up to the minute current. The same occurred as we prepared to depart the field. It appears that the opinion exists that this flight should not have been dispatched or operated into that airport because the AWOS was NOTAMed as being out of service; even though there was evidence to the contrary. Perhaps in the future; if a facility or service is NOTAMed out of service; then that service should be turned off so that there is no confusion. Or maybe there needs to be further regulations stating what to do in the event of conflicting reports such as this. A NOTAM that states something that isn't true creates a fair amount of confusion. I have not been able to find any documentation that states that if a facility is showing out of service in the NOTAMs then the flight cannot be dispatched. The problem appears to be that the regulations are not clear cut when it comes to this situation. According to our regulations; in order to be dispatched we need current weather for the intended arrival airport. We had that and we had up to the minute weather upon arrival. There have been situations where a navigational facility was NOTAMed as out of service yet come to find out it was working just fine. If something is showing as out of service in the NOTAMs then it needs to be turned off completely until that NOTAM is removed otherwise it's a situation of the boy who cries wolf.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.