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Christchurch

Christchurch (ICAO: NZCH; IATA: CHC) is New Zealand's second largest airport and the primary arrival point for air travellers visiting the South Island. It is also the main forward base of operations for the flight programme to McMurdo Sound in Antarctica.

It has three runways: runway 02/20, a parallel grass runway 02/20 Grass, and the cross runway 11/29. As in real life, runway 02/20 receives the vast majority of traffic in the online world.

Note: Pilots using FS9 and FSX should be aware that Runway 11/29 is significantly misaligned is those sim's default sceneries. If assigned the Runway 11/29, please advise ATC of your sim version and request use of Runway 02/20 instead.

Arrivals

Runways 02 and 20 are equipped with ILS and all of the NZCH arrival procedures feed into these approaches. All STARs are now RNAV only. Pilots unable to fly the RNAV arrivals should indicate this in their flight plan, and inform controllers on initial contact in order to receive vectors to the ILS approach.

MOLGI

Flights arriving via MOLGI (eg: from Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart) can expect to be assigned one of the MOLGI arrivals depending on the active runway.

• MOLGI → Runway 02:
  HODDE ONE ALFA MOLGI TRANSITION (MOLGI.HODDE1A)
• MOLGI → Runway 20:
  MOLGI SEVEN BRAVO (MOLGI7B)

VANDA

Flights arriving via VANDA (eg: from Sydney, Newcastle, Canberra) can expect to be assigned one of the BELEE arrivals depending on the active runway.

• VANDA → Runway 02:
  BELEE SIX ALFA VANDA TRANSITION (VANDA.BELEE6A)
• VANDA → Runway 20:
  BELEE SIX BRAVO VANDA TRANSITION (VANDA.BELEE6B)

All of these arrivals cross over the Southern Alps, the most mountainous section of the entire Oceania region, and there are a series of descent steps specified as part of the arrivals (see the charts above). Aircraft on these arrivals should descend to the ATC cleared level via the published steps.

Departures

KABIN

Flights departing Christchurch via KABIN (eg: to Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart) can expect to be assigned one of the following departures depending on the active runway.

• Runway 02 → KABIN:
  BAVEM SIX PAPA KABIN TRANSITION (BAVEM6P.KABIN)
• Runway 20 → KABIN:
  KADET SIX QUEBEC KABIN TRANSITION (KADET6Q.KABIN)

VANDA

Flights departing Christchurch via VANDA (eg: to Sydney, Newcastle, Canberra) can expect to be assigned one of the following departures depending on the active runway.

• Runway 02 → VANDA:
  BAVEM SIX PAPA VANDA TRANSITION (BAVEM6P.VANDA)
• Runway 20 → VANDA:
  KADET SIX QUEBEC VANDA TRANSITION (KADET6Q.VANDA)