A Weekend flying in Noumea

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Postby deeknow » Tue May 20, 2008 1:37 am

After arriving in Noumea from New Zealand on Sunday I decided to take a break from international flying and signed up with Air Caledonie regional to take a few commuter and tourist shuttle flights up and down the main island and out to the smaller ones off the coast. I'd arrived on A320 flight NZ362 from Auckland, my first trip to New Caledonia as first officer for vANZ. The approach was up the coastline past Magenta, turning right at the Tontouta NDB and back along the basin below the ridge to hook up with the ILS for RWY 11. A fabulous sight and the awesome landscape representative of the rest of the island's terrain.



New Caledonia consists of one main island heading roughly south-east to north-west, with a half dozen much smaller islands dotted around it to the north, east and south-east. The main island has a couple of shortish grass strips, a couple of 3600ft+ sealed ones, and the main international airport in Noumea itself where your likely to see Aircalin, Air France, Air Vanuatu, Air New Zealand and Qantas.



Each of the outlying Islands has a sealed airstrip long enough for them to be serviced by Air Caledonie National's fleet of four ATR42/320s. They also run a single Dornier228 which is used mostly for the coastal hops on the mainland and to get up to the wee northern island of Belep.



I managed to fly in and out of each of the runways in the island network over the last two days, and each of them offers a really interesting approach. The terrain is awesome on the mainland, crossing or following the main ridge-line is great fun in the Dornier, and there's a neat little strip on Belep nestled down in a valley between two high-points on the island.



The outlying island strips are all tough to spot from the air which adds to the challenge of landing on them. None is much longer than 3600ft plus they're mostly surrounded by jungle which will appeal to bush-bashers. The ATR's handling and ability to haul up in fairly short order means this isn't too much of a problem.



All in all this is a great little piece of the planet to be flying about it in if your looking for a brief change from New Zealand terrain. Whether you want to simulate real-world flying routes, or just want to blast about in a GA aircraft or choppers up and around all the valleys and ridge-lines on the mainland. It's got something for everyone and you're never far from a runway.



An ATR42/300 with Air Caledonie regional livery is available from AVsim (file: atr_149554.zip) as is a Dornier 228 (file: dornier.zip). AI flight plans are available for the International carrier Aircalin as are AI repaints for the FSP A320 and A330 (Karl Hannestads repaint: fsp_a332_aircalin_tpc.zip)

There are AI flight plans covering the international carriers who service Noumea. I'd also recommend Andy Weir's Pacific Islands SRTM Terrain Mesh which includes New Caledonia and can be downloaded in two parts from AVsim. Another essential file is Louie Maclennan's Afcad2 Pacific airfields update (file: matpacific_2.zip) which includes this region.

You can checkout Air Caledonie national here:
http://air-caledonie.nc:8080/en/
And the international carrier Aircalin here:
http://www.aircalin.com/s31.aspx?lg=gb&cid=3

Last edited by deeknow on Tue May 20, 2008 11:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Daniel » Tue May 20, 2008 7:09 am

Hey Deeknow

Awesome screenshots. I quite like all of their aircraft.
I went to New Caledonia last year on air nz and back on air calin and been trying to find some models and textures so i can fly the route.
I also had a look through Air Caledonie's Maintanance hanger and had a look in their ATR 72 (its one of the newer ones with the blue panel)
I might have to see if i can get any models or textures and fly some of their routes sometime. You have inspired me to go and fly them.
Keep up the cool pics mate.

Cheers
Daniel
Last edited by Daniel on Tue May 20, 2008 7:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Charl » Tue May 20, 2008 8:12 am

What an interesting spread, good pictures and lots of info.
Never been to NC...Bookmark here for sure, thanks for a great post!
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Postby DOG » Tue May 20, 2008 8:35 am

Great Shots.

I must take the C421 up there to see the scenery.

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Postby Q300 » Tue May 20, 2008 8:53 am

Nice work Deeknow! Looks like a great place to fly the 1900D/C or the HS.748 :drool:
Might take the old RG for a bit of a blast round there later, Check things out before flying the bigger birds in >buck< Expect pics :D
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Postby deeknow » Tue May 20, 2008 11:27 am

Daniel wrote:
QUOTE (Daniel @ May 20 2008, 07:09 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I also had a look through Air Caledonie's Maintanance hanger and had a look in their ATR 72 (its one of the newer ones with the blue panel)


Nice one Daniel, cool opportunity to have a nosy aye? You got any pics online of your holiday?

After having a good look at the geography of the place I'm dead keen to take a real-world holiday there now. Went to Aitutaki off Rarotonga last year and loved that, but the New Caledonia islands are much closer together, be awesome to take a scenic-flight around the area. Even Island hopping by boat would be fun.
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Postby deeknow » Tue May 20, 2008 11:32 am

Q300 wrote:
QUOTE (Q300 @ May 20 2008, 08:53 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Nice work Deeknow! Looks like a great place to fly the 1900D/C or the HS.748 :drool:


Yeah, the B1900s would be perfect, its my turbo-prop of choice too :thumbup: ... I also blasted around the main island in a Hughes-500 which was fun. Look FWD to seeing your pics, you on FS9 or FSX? I think there's a virtual-airline for the region too, but of course the site is all in French, and being a bloke I didnt take it as a 3rd-form language option at school ;)
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Postby Florian_S » Tue May 20, 2008 12:34 pm

Very nice! :)
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Postby Daniel » Tue May 20, 2008 3:58 pm

deeknow wrote:
QUOTE (deeknow @ May 20 2008, 11:27 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Nice one Daniel, cool opportunity to have a nosy aye? You got any pics online of your holiday?

I have a few but i only took one at the airport.(and it isnt very good)
I can post it if you want.
I went to both the international one and Magenta.
Magenta handles all domestic flights including Air Caledonie.

Cheers
Daniel
Last edited by Daniel on Tue May 20, 2008 6:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Anthony » Tue May 20, 2008 4:40 pm

Cool shots Deeknow.

Cheers
Anthony
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Postby Alex » Tue May 20, 2008 6:25 pm

I did a sim VFR Tour of New Caledonia once through IVAO - was really interesting getting to 'know' the geography of the islands a bit more. :)

Nice shots as well deek. :thumbup:

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