The new NAT DOC 007 is coming into force on March 19th which gives you a month and a bit (but it is the shortest month) left to get to grips with the changes. The good news is there’s nothing too whoppingly different in the new NAT DOC 007.

The bad news is, you still have sit and go through the amendment list trying to work out if its a minor change in wording, nothing more than a single letter changed from lower case to capital, or something really important you need to know to avoid NAT HLA humiliation!

So, you could read it yourself, going one by one through the amendments list. You could probably whack it into CHatGPT and have that summarise the differences for you. Or you can read this and hopefully it helps give a bit of a heads up (although I still recommend giving it a thorough once over anyway afterwards in case I miss anything).

Let’s start with the simple stuff

They have added five new abbreviations. Three of are just ones they’ve always used but forgot to actually define.

• Then there is ATO and ATA.

You’re probably more familiar with ETA and ETO. E for estimated. Now we have A for actual. ATO means ‘Actual Time Over a significant point’.

Why the change? Well, this is more accurate and makes sure folk use the FMS predicted times (I’m not sure anyone was just randomly making up estimations) but it’s important because ATC will use this for separation.

• They have also removed FLAS.

This was the ‘flight level allocation system’. There are a lot of minor changes through the doc because this doesn’t really exist anymore, but it doesn’t fundamentally change how levels are allocated or the practical aspect of this.

Here are the bigger bits.

A lot of the changes in this DOC are just minor edits. I’m not going to cover to every single one. What I will mention is these few things:

• General Changes including planning stuff

Requirements to check your own State approvals and MEL are emphasised a bit more

4.1.1 has removed references to Doc 7030 and now just states info is found in State AIPs. DOC 7030 was the regional supplementary procedures doc.

Shannon is the only provider of VOLMET now. Don’t worry, it covers all the same bits it did before (5.5.3)

Moncton are no longer issuing NAR NOTAMS. You’ll just find all the info on them in the Canada Flight supplements (4.2.10)

They have added some flight paining codes in. In Item 10 you now have a G for GNSS, and in item 18 you have “NAV/RNP2” which is the specific RNP 2 approval required for operation on T9 and T290 (11.5.6)

The section on space weather disruptions is now 10.7 (used to be 10.8)

There is a reminder that GNSS interference is now in a NAT OPS Bulletin because it is now such a big and inescapable part of ops here! (10.8.7)

Do you use a Galileo satellite-based radio navigation system? Then head to Annex 10 Volume 1 for some SARPs on this.

We’ve got some big rewrites in Chapter 13. The new chapter is less historical and conceptual and more operational and performance-management oriented (especially for PBCS and reporting pathways). Take section 13.5 which gives us all the stuff that needs reporting. It is much more operationally focused so some ‘good to know’ (for pilots) stuff here:

13.5 OPERATIONAL REPORTS TO THE NAT CMA

Details of the following occurrences should also be reported to the NAT CMA by the ATS

13.5.2 Large Height Deviation (LHD) which are height deviations of 300 ft or greater.

13.5.3 Lateral deviations, when the aircraft actually deviates from the cleared track other than those

covered by the Strategic Lateral Offset Procedures (SLOP).

13.5.4 Coordination errors, where coordination between two Units has not been correctly carried out, leading to a vertical, lateral or time event.

13.5.5 Longitudinal Loss of Separation (LLoS), where a flight loses prescribed longitudinal separation which is not related to an LHD or lateral deviation.

13.5.6 Where ATC intervened and prevented an event from actually occurring, the ANSP shall report

the event with the relevant event type and record within the report that it was prevented.

With all of this they’ve taken out a bunch of the old reporting forms that were previously in the attachments.

• General Operational Changes

With those ATO/ATA changes comes a big reminder to make sure your clock is working. Its important because if it doesn’t work it will send the wrong times to ATC and their separation won’t work either. So, check it is properly updated on the ground (because most clocks can ONLY be updated on the ground), and keep in mind GNSS interference can mess with this too if they spoof it. So be sure to let ATC know as early as possible if your clock ain’t ticking right.

Aircraft planning to land at airports in Greenland south of 6330N may be restricted to low flight levels due to larger separation minima applicable in this airspace. Probably due to those new airports and more folk heading there! (4.1.13)

They have specified a difference between ground based ADS-B as opposed to space-based. It adds that Space-based ADS-B surveillance has been implemented in the NAT Region except for New York Oceanic East. It also warns of the limitations in reception if your antenna is stuck to the bottom of the aircraft (12.12.1)

• Navigational Changes including communications and surveillance which pilots probably need to know about

They have adjusted the DLM phraseology. The NAT Data Link Mandate (DLM) requires aircraft to be equipped with, and operating, FANS 1/A CPDLC and ADS-C over Inmarsat or Iridium SATCOM in the NAT region. Currently, the mandate incorporates FL 290 to FL 410 inclusive. (1.7.1) So as I understand it, it’s kind of a reminder that DLM means datalink, not just SATCOM.

For your LRCS system you need HF, and then a second system which is HF, SATVOICE and/or CPDLC over SATCOM. That additional note about SATCOM again which I think means you can have your SATCOM as the second LRCS but they prefer you to use the others (5.1.1)

Flights which are planned to follow an OTS track for its entire length (during the OTS periods) may plan any levels (keeping in mind PBCS and DLM requirements). It used to say any published level for that track! (4.1.10)

PBCS levels are also changing from FL350-390 to FL340-400. So equippage requirements apply there too now.

There is a whole new (well, revised) section on FMS NAVIGATIONAL FORMAT AND WAYPOINT VERIFICATION PROCEDURES. This is pretty important for pilots so let’s dig into that in a bit (6.2).

This isn’t a big change, but they seem to have ever so slightly redefined ‘random route’, removing the requirement for it to avoid the OTS in its entirety in order to be defined as random. This ties in with 11.4.1 where they have pretty much just merged OTS-track, random-route, and outside-OTS cases into one sentence and use bigger general definitions for them (11.3.8)

Santa Maria no longer needs the WAH report on entry. It is optional for all now. WAH means ‘when able higher’ – previously, on entry, you should have advised them when you would be able to climb to the next level (5.4.1)

You only need to report to ATC when you reach a new cruising level if you are not on CPDLC ADS-C (5.3.5)

• Reykjavik Changes

There are a lot of new references to Reykjavik which have been added or amended in this DOC. There are two reasons why. First, you don’t just need a pressure altitude reporting SSR transponder (1.6.2), there is now also a requirement for a Mode S ELS in the Reykjavik FIR. That’s an elementary surveillance system in case you don’t know.

And there is now a requirement for ADS-B (1.6.3) in Reykjavik too. In fact, they have removed the comment that ADS-B is required west of 30W. It is now required in that whole Iceland to Greenland corridor (1.7.5)

Although ADS-B coverage exists throughout a large section of the NAT, ADS-B equipage is not mandated except on routes T9 and T290 and in the Reykjavik FIR. Reykjavik has been added in there (8.1.2).

So what do pilots need to know?

Your operator is (hopefully) going to update you policies and guidance on all this, but here are some things to look out for so you can feel all clever about it when they do.

Read the NAT Track Message Remarks section (2.3.4) It is a really important part of the overall message and has info on practical stuff you may need to know for that flight!

Know the areas where ADS-B (and everything else) is mandated.

Know your procedures. A lot of the navigation related ones come from Chapter 6…

…Chapter Six

Let’s start short with the big changes:

• Clock checks: on the ground (where you can still reset it if you need to)
• Clock checks: in flight so you can advise ATC early if its not working
• Ground speed checks: Helps confirm LRNS is working well.
• Lat & Long checks: No change, we always had to, but a reminder.
• Independent cross checks: No change, another reminder of the importance.
• RCL timings: Reykjavik no longer needs RCL (same as NY Oceanic).

Here’s all that in more detail:

Chapter 6 is the big one. This is the flight ops procedures chapter. Instead of comparing the old with the new, let’s just look at what it says.

You’ve got an introduction which talks about OBN, OTS, GNSS etc. So if you don’t know how important they all are in the NAT then give 6.1 a good read.

6.2 is all about waypoint verification. Basically, check the full last and longs. If your company is using the 5 character identifiers then they should also ensure you’re trained on these and how to verify them. Make sure you know your Ns from your Hs, and how to view the full digits for verification.

6.3 is more on flights ops and navigation procedures. It runs through what to check, which documents to have – weather, NOTAMS, a flight plan, the TMI, the MEL… and it gives us a bunch of info on ETPs, contingency plans etc.

6.3.10 is our pre-flight clock check requirement. A master clock, as designated on board, should be synchronized to UTC or GNSS. This time source, which is typically the Flight Management System (FMS), must be used for all ETOs and ATOs. Remember, this can generally only be done on the ground.

We have a new Groundspeed check requirement here too. 6.3.22 says that the groundspeed should be noted before taxiing the aircraft. Pilots should expect the groundspeed to read zero (0) knots. This procedure is a good practice to detect an error that may be developing in the LRNS.

GNEs are still a big issue so along with the pre-flight independent checks of the route, there is also information on what to do in flight if you get a message from ATC saying you are probably about to, or already have, deviated from route. In the event of receiving a message from ATC along these lines, or if there is any doubt about the correct routing, you need to open up the full Lats and Longs in order to work out where you’ve gone or are potentially about to go wrong. (6.3.57/58)

This section also contains all those RCL timings for each OCA (6.3.24).

Gander OCA 90-60 minutes;

Shanwick OCA 90-30 minutes;

Santa Maria OCA at least 40 minutes;

Bodo OCA at least 20 minute

Notice one is missing? You’ve don’t need to request for New York Oceanic or for Reykjavik. So what does that mean? Well, your ATS clearance is enough.

But be careful – Shanwick still use the old clearance request system (potentially due to change later in 2026). Others use the one where you clearance is just confirmed. Reykjavik uses nothing… It isn’t standard through the NAT HLA and they do keep changing stuff.

That’s all folks!

These are the main things I spotted. If I missed any, or misinterpreted any, comment so others know!