On Monday morning the annual Worldflight event kicks off and breezes through VATNZ's Oceanic airspace. Unfortunately most of us will be at school or work during the hours of their flight so this week's SNO is based around our sole Worldflight 2008 airport: NSFA - Faleolo (Apia, Western Samoa).
As well as giving the rest of us a chance to check out this part of our division's territory, this event will also serve as a warm-up to identify any issues prior to the World Flight's arrival the following afternoon. We need your help to fill the skies with aircraft and put the airspace through its paces.
Sunday's event involves the three major airports in a trio of VATNZ's smaller nations: NSFA - Faleolo (Apia, Western Samoa), NIUE (Niue), and NFTF - Fua'amotu (Nuku'alofa, Tonga).
The goal for pilots is to start at any of the three and fly at least two flights involving NSFA. A complete circuit between all three airports will take around three hours, so only fly the segment between NIUE and NFTF if you have time: the priority here is to keep traffic moving in and out of the NSFA area.
Check out the Interactive Route Map for more details.
These routes suit a variety of aircraft: the distances are similar to that between Auckland/Wellington/Christchurch. There is an ILS at NSFA for runway 08.
- Event Times: Sunday 2nd November 2008 1900-2330 NZDT / 1700-2130 AEDT / 0600-1030 UTC
- Flight Plan Routes:
NFTF/NSFA: TBU A592 FA
NSFA/NFTF: FA A592 TBU
NIUE/NSFA: NU A584 FA
NSFA/NIUE: FA A584 NU
NIUE/NFTF: NU A584 FM
NFTF/NIUE: FM A584 NU - Airspace Info:
General Airspace information and details for all VATNZ airports available from the VATNZ Airspace Reference site. - Priority ATC Positions:
NZZO_FSS - Auckland Radio
NSFA_APP - Faleolo Approach Control
NSFA_TWR - Faleolo Tower
NFTF_APP - Fua'amotu Approach and Tower
NIUE_TWR - Niue Tower
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. Please do not open positions in mainland NZ: we're trying to focus traffic in the islands during this event.
To reserve a particular ATC position, 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 legs, giving priority to flights that arrive/depart at NSFA.
If you have any questions please feel free to email me, or reply to this thread.
Nick