VATNZ - Sunday Night Ops - 8th February 2009: NZTG/NZPM/NZCH

[Nick Johnston]

Sunday Night Ops for 8th February 2009 - Tauranga (NZTG), Palmerston North (NZPM), and Christchurch (NZCH)

 

Building on the great turn-out for last week's event, we're visiting another two regional airports as well as a perennial favourite.

 

It's school time again, and two of our members are next week heading off to M[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ey University in quixotically located Palmerston North. In honour of their journey we're focussing our SNO activity on that town, ferrying students to cl[Mod - Happy Thoughts] from Tauranga in the north and Christchurch in the south.

 

Palmerston North is often overshadowed by its proximity to the capital and doesn't see anywhere enough traffic online, despite being another fun place to fly - hint: watch out for those mountains to the east on approach to 25!

 

Despite its growing real-world population, Tauranga is not often staffed online, so this is a good opportunity to check out the bustling Bay of Plenty metropolis, and try out its new-in-November RNAV arrivals.

 

Everyone flies in and out of Christchurch all the time - you don't need me to tell you why you want to fly here (ILS, long runway, no nearby big hunks of rock to fly into, etc).

 

Each leg should be around forty minutes depending on aircraft type, meaning you should able to fly the complete circuit in around two and a half hours. There's something interesting in each route - be it flying over the Wairarapa on the way to Christchurch, or discovering the rather odd navigation fix humour hidden on the routes to and from Tauranga. Fly the full circuit and you'll get to see four major mountain ranges, at least two seas, several volcanoes and the largest caldera in the southern hemisphere.

 

Real-world, Air New Zealand is flying ATR-72s and Dash-8's on these routes, but you should feel free to bring along your prop or small jet aircraft.

 

 

 

• Event Times: Sunday 8th February 2009 1900-2330 NZDT / 0600-1030 UTC / 1700-2130 AEDT
  
• Flight Time: approx. 2 - 2.5hrs to complete the circuit
  
• Flight Plan Route:
  NOTE: start the evening at ANY of the three airports
   
  Southbound
  NZTG/NZPM: (RNAV) TG H310 RO Y640 PM
  NZPM/NZCH: (PMCH3) PM Y226 FY Y694 MESIX H159 CH
   
   
  Northbound
  NZCH/NZPM: (CHPM3) CH V393 CC H426 TY H467 PM
  NZPM/NZTG: (RNAV) PM H352 OH Y505 TG
   
   
  Tauranga/Palmerston North Non-RNAV Alternative
  Note: If at all possible, please use the RNAV routes in preference to these.
  NZTG/NZPM: (Non-RNAV) TG H310 PM
  NZPM/NZTG: (Non-RNAV) PM H310 TG
   
  Click on the image below to view the preferred routings in the interactive airspace map:
   
  
   
   
  
• Airport Details: Palmerston North Airport
  Likely arrival r/w 07: VOR/DME RWY 07; or RNAV RWY 07
  Likely arrival r/w 25: VOR/DME RWY 25; or RNAV RWY 07
  Likely departure r/w 07: to NZTG: RWY 07 CHARLIE THREE or RWY 07 ECHO THREE; to NZCH: RWY 07 DELTA TWO
  Likely departure r/w 25: to NZTG: RWY 25 ALFA FOUR; to NZCH: RWY 25 BRAVO THREE
   
   
  
• Airport Details: Tauranga Airport
  Likely arrival r/w 07 - NDB/DME RWY 16; or RNAV RWY 07 (via the OROPI1A arrival)
  Likely arrival r/w 25 - NDB/DME RWY 25; or RNAV RWY 25 (via the OROPI1B arrival)
  Likely departure: Straight out
   
   
  
• Airport Details: Christchurch Airport
  Likely arrival r/w 02: ILS/DME RWY 02 or RNAV RWY 02 (via the MESIX3A arrival)
  Likely arrival r/w 20: ILS/DME RWY 20 or RNAV RWY 20 (via the MESIX2B arrival)
  Likely departures r/w 02: WOODEND ONE ALFA (OD1A)
  Likely departures r/w 20: BURNHAM ONE (BU1)
   
   
  
• Charts/Airspace Info: Charts for all the procedures listed here are available by clicking on the airport links above.
  General Airspace information and details for all VATNZ airports available from the VATNZ Airspace Reference site.
   
   
   
  
• Priority ATC Positions:
  NZPM_TWR - Palmerston North Tower
  NZTG_TWR - Tauranga Tower
  NZCH_TWR - Christrchurch Tower
  NZOH_CTR/NZCH-A_CTR/NZCH-N_CTR - Enroute Control
   
  Note: If you're providing ATC on the night, please give priority to these positions. They are not an exclusive list, but they are the ones that will see the most action this Sunday.
   
  To reserve a particular ATC position, please post a message to that effect (including the times you expect to be online) in this thread. If possible, also book your position using vroute - large numbers of bookings in vroute attract additional traffic.
   
   
  
• Late-comers/Shorter Alternative: Late-comers or people looking for a shorter flight should consider flying only one or two of the legs. That said, this week's legs are all short so ideally most pilots will fly at least three of them. The goal is to concentrate as much traffic as possible - heading in multiple directions - above the Manawatu region.
   
   
  
• Only one of this week's airports has an ILS. For tips on how best to manage without one, be sure to check out this excellent Non Precision Approach tutorial from VATNZ member and real-world Air NZ flight crew, Steve Hall.

 

 

If you have any questions please feel free to email me, or reply to this thread.

 

 

Nick