Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 1:37 amAfter 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
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
Expect pics 
... 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 
