Taipei (Taiwan)

There are only three main airports in Taiwan. They are Taipei (RCTP), Kaohsiung (RCKH), and Sungshan (RCSS). Kaohsiung is used primarily as a fair weather alternate. Sungshan is not suitable for wide body aircraft. When the weather is bad, consider taking enough fuel for a return to Hong Kong.

Runway inspections in Taipei take place during the daytime. An inspection will close the runway for 30 minutes. Normally runway 05/23 is inspected in the morning and runway 06/24 is inspected in the afternoon. The CX Kansai flight is often affected by the afternoon closure.

• All four runways have an ILS approach with autoland. CAT 2 approaches are available to runway 05 and 23. Ask for this runway if the weather is poor.
• There is significant high terrain to the southeast of the airfield. APU VOR (ANPU) or AP NDB marks the nearest area of high ground and is useful for terrain avoidance.
• On arrival from HKG you can expect to be cleared for the TONGA THREE ALPHA RNAV arrival. You will normally be cleared to "cross TONGA at and maintain FL290". You will not be able to descend below FL150 until you are handed over to approach control on 125.1.
• For runway 06 you will be cleared to "JAMMY for the TONGA THREE RNAV ARRIVAL" [TG206]. Approaching BRAVO expect either direct HUKOU with descent to 4000 feet or clearance for the procedural approach via JAMMY.
• For runway 23/24 you will be cleared to AUGUR via TONGA THREE RNAV arrival. Expect radar vectors from AUGUR to final course fix. * Suggest join EMILY to CF23 or CF24 on the LEGS pages as this will give you true track miles per the radar vectors given.
• The Jeppesen charts for STARs from the north talk about altitude restrictions at COPRA or DRAKE. In reality, you will almost always be given an altitude restriction of FL200 at ANNNA (from Japan) or FL200 at BAKER (from Korea).
• For arrivals from Japan, expect the ANNNA TWO ALPHA RNAV [AN206] arrival to runway 05/06 or the ANNNA TWO BRAVO RNAV to runway 23/24.
• For arrivals from Korea expect the BAKER TWO ALPHA RNAV [BK106] arrival to runway 05/06 or the BAKER TWO BRAVO RNAV to runway 23/24. The full arrival has quite a few extra track miles and in practice you can expect radar vectors on downwind to a 10 mile final. This means if you blindly follow VNAV you will end up about 3500 feet high when you turn base! If you want to retain all of the STAR waypoints, put something sensible in the FMS. A constraint of 220/4000 at MARCH will work well.
• You will normally be radar vectored onto final approach.
• A VOR DME approach is available to runway 05 and 23. Runway 05 and 06 have an NDB DME approach. GPS approaches

are now available to all runways. Be wary of the GPS to runway 24 which has a very steep final approach segment and a final approach fix of 1900 feet at 5.0 NM (3.31°).

• {CX} Parking is normally on bay B6 or B7.

• For flights to Hong Kong you will be cleared for an AJENT 2M RNAV [AJ2M].
• For flights to Japan (MOLKA, M750) expect the NEPAS 3K RNAV departure from runway 05/06. For runway 23/24 expect the OCTAN 1K RNAV departure.
• For flights to Korea (BULAN, G587, A1) you can expect the PIANO departure with a SALMI transition. The SID will be the PIANO 1A [PA1A] from runway 05/06, and the PIANO 1B [PA1B] from runway 23/24. Initial altitude is usually FL190 to expect higher at EPOXY.
• Departing to the north, you will usually have to make your cruise level before the FIR boundary points which are SALMI, BULAN or MOLKA.
• {B777} When flying the ANPU 4 departure, you sometimes get an "UNABLE NEXT ALT" message. There is no actual geographical point where 4500 is required however, 4500 feet is required before turning right direct APU. If you get the message, open the speed window and reduce to minimum clean speed. This is normally sufficient to achieve 4500 before the 290° radial which is coded in the FMS.

• RCKH, Kaohsiung (201°/57NM) - This is the primary alternate for Taipei. For a diversion to Kaohsiung you can expect routing via HLG-W4-TNN, followed by a SIGANG 3K [SN3K] arrival for the ILS DME Rwy 09 approach. The diversion route is on the back of the Taipei area chart (10-1A). Runway 27 does not have a precision approach but LOC DME and GPS approaches are available. Very high terrain lies just to the east of the airport. Kaohsiung alternate filing minima are slightly higher than normal at 600 feet and 3.2 KM.
• VHHH, Hong Kong (253°/436NM) - This is usually the best choice if weather is a factor in Taipei.

Descent - Taipei can sometimes be a bit tricky. On a flight from HKG, the aircraft can be heavy due to CAT B or CAT C fuel. In addition, the upper winds (tailwind) can be quite strong. To make matters worse ATC tend to keep the aircraft high on profile. If you find yourself facing this situation try to get the profile sorted out before the final approach. For runway 06 aim to be at HUKOU at 180/4000 with Flaps 5. Offpath descent can be a useful tool for monitoring the descent. The primary reference however should always be the TIA VOR.

Runway 24 - {Boeing} Clearance to descend to FL290 by TONGA is very common even for runway 24. This will be significantly low on profile. Once you pass TONGA the FMS will draw shallow straight-line vertical segments for the rest of the descent. An easy way to regenerate an idle path is to press the MCP altitude button as soon as you capture F290. After crossing TONGA you can use V/S 500 to re-intercept the vertical path. If you are too busy to try this, then an easier way to obtain good profile data may be to use offpath descent. For runway 24 program the offpath descent using 220/4000 at JUNTA.

Kansai Flight - At present runway 06/24 is closed daily from 0600-0630Z. {CX} The KIX flight via TPE is affected both on the arrival and departure (HKG-TPE and TPE-HKG). Often the arrival time from HKG is very close to 0630Z. The best way to manage this is to advise TPE Approach of your exact arrival time and request runway 06 if appropriate.