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Noumea

Noumea - La Tontouta (icao: NWWW; iata: NOU) is the major airport for the French territory of New Caledonia. It is the main transit point for tourists from around the world seeking the island's heady mix of French and Melanesian culture, and South Pacific tropical beauty.

It has one runway - 11/29. Due to high ground to the south of the airport, most approaches are performed onto runway 11 (it is the only ILS approach), and where possible departures are performed from runway 29. There are no runway-end taxiways and the terminal is located roughly halfway along the runway, so all departures and long-running arrivals will require a back-track.

CTD Taxiway at Noumea

In real life Noumea sees far less traffic than will be present during Cross the Ditch. The aprons are only connected to the runway near the middle, requiring backtracks in excess of a kilometre in both directions.

In order to facilitate efficient flow of event-level traffic, ATC may require aircraft to taxi via the 'CTD taxiway' which is a fictional taxiway extending Taxiway W east and west across the grass area on the northern side of the runway from the apron area to the runway thresholds.

Use of the imaginary taxiway is a necessary compromise to allow us to make available extra slots available at this airport during the event window.

Limited Parking At Noumea

There are a limited number of parking spots on the civilian apron at Noumea, and it is likely that demand for gates will at times outstrip supply. Please consider the following:

• Make sure your simulator has collision damage turned off.
• If you are observing only, please position yourself on the grass on the southern side of the runway.
• If there is no parking available on the civilian apron, use the Freight or Military aprons.
• If all the aprons are full, position and load your aircraft on the northern side of the runway upwind of the civilian and freight aprons. Be sure not to block the 'CTD' Taxiway.

Arrivals

Due to terrain south and east of the airport, runway 11 is used as the active unless winds prevent its use.

Runway 11 is equipped with an ILS. Runway 29 has only an RNAV arrival.

MESUS

When Runway 11 is in use, pilots arriving overhead MESUS should expect either:

• the MESUS TWO (MESUS2) arrival followed by an ILS V RWY 11 approach; or
• vectors to SARAM followed by an ILS X RWY 11 approach.

When Runway 29 is in use, pilots arriving overhead MESUS should expect the MESUS TWO (MESUS2) arrival followed by vectors to the IAF for the RNP RWY 29 approach.

Departures

SCUBA

Flights departing Noumea via SCUBA (eg: to Christchurch) can expect to be assigned one of the following departures depending on the active runway.

• Runway 11 → SCUBA:
  SCUBA 3E (SCUBA3E).
• Runway 29 → SCUBA:
  SCUBA 3W (SCUBA3W).

Backtrack Required

Noumea does not have full length taxiways and requires backtracking for departures and/or arrivals.

Please be aware of nearby aircraft and expedite all backtrack operations to minimise delays for other pilots.

Limited Parking Available

Noumea has a limited number of gates available.

Gates will be allocated on an as-available basis. If the airport is particularly busy, you may be asked to board/deboard your aircraft in an overflow parking area - eg: on an unused apron area, or on a grass area adjoining the apron. This doesn't always reflect real-world operations, but may be necessary to handle the much-larger-than-real-world traffic flows at some event airports.

If you intend to remain at the airport for an extended period after arriving - for example, to observe the other aircraft - please advise the controller of your intentions and request taxi to a grass area to allow other pilots use of the gates.

*** Make sure your sim is set to ignore collisions with other aircraft. ***