Chad · elevation 1532 ft AMSL
· 9.3781, 14.9250
Pala Airport is an airport with the ICAO code FTTP and the IATA code PLF. Country: Chad. Nearest settlement listed in the database: Pala. OurAirports classifies it as a small airport. Its ICAO code starts with the FT prefix, which marks airports in Chad. The four-letter code FTTP is used in flight operations and weather reports, while the three-letter IATA code PLF is used for ticketing and baggage handling. The airport reference point sits at 9°22'41"N, 14°55'30"E, at an elevation of 1,532 ft (467 m) above sea level. The applicable time zone is Africa/Ndjamena.
Aerial imagery showing the runway and apron layout - the zoom is matched to the longest runway.
| Threshold | Course | Length | Width | Surface |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 05 | 50° | 1,570 m (5,151 ft) | no data | unpaved |
| 23 | 230° |
The course is derived from the runway designator (number × 10), not from a survey - the actual magnetic bearing can differ by a few degrees.
Declared distances (TORA, TODA, ASDA, LDA) are published in the national AIP - they are not part of this table.
According to the infobox on the English Wikipedia, Pala Airport has one runway: 05/23 - 1,570 m long (5,151 ft), unpaved surface.
No OurAirports data is available for this airport, so the figures above come from Wikipedia - a community-edited source that can be out of date. The infobox also gives no runway width. Treat these numbers as indicative and check the current AIP before flying.
The thresholds are oriented as follows: 05/23 on 50° and 230° magnetic. A threshold designator is its magnetic heading divided by ten (ICAO Annex 14), so the runway axis can be read straight off the numbers.
For the 05/23 axis, wind from the south-east (around 140°) or from the north-west (around 320°) blows perpendicular to the runway and produces the largest crosswind component. Wind from around 50° or 230° acts along the runway, as a headwind or a tailwind. The decoder on this page computes those components automatically from the current METAR.
Weather reports for Pala Airport are published under the ICAO code FTTP. A METAR is an observation of current conditions, usually issued every 30 or 60 minutes; a TAF is a forecast for the airport area, typically covering 9 to 30 hours.
The decoder breaks the FTTP report down into its parts: wind direction and speed including gusts and variability, visibility (including CAVOK and directional minimum visibility), weather phenomena by WMO code, cloud layers with their bases, temperature and dew point, QNH pressure, and the resulting flight category - VFR, MVFR, IFR or LIFR - using FAA thresholds.
Not every airport issues its own reports; many smaller airfields have no weather station. If no current data is available for FTTP, check the nearby airports listed below.
Reports always use UTC (the Z suffix). The Africa/Ndjamena zone stays at GMT+01:00 year-round, so converting to local time is always the same shift.
The closest airports in the database, measured in a straight line from the reference point, are Kaélé Airport (FKKH, 95 km), Bongor Airport (FTTB, 113 km), Yagoua Airport (FKKJ, 114 km). When no report is available for FTTP, they usually give the best approximation of conditions in the area.
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