Kai Tak Intl landing

[huncowboy]

clicked on the most popular (ever) pictures link on airliners.net and a few of these pictures came up that captured a final moments of some 747s landing on this airport...

These pics made me wonder how on Earth is/was this safe? The text next to these pictures sais "(closed)" so I guess that runway or airport is not in use anymore (?).

Any of you flew that approach? Looks more like a stunt to me. I thought the plane should be in a normal position without abrupt maneuvers etc at all times LOL...

here is the link at airliners, especially the one which comes up on the bottom of the page:

http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?static=yes&specialsearch=order_views

 

[Stifler's Mom]

That must be one of those "auto lands" from that newspaper article in another thread.

I thought the plane should be in a normal position without abrupt maneuvers etc at all times LOL...

I think it was in a normal position, right up until the last 50 feet when they realized they were in deep doo doo.

 

[TankerPuke]

Are you familiar with RW13 at Kai Tek?? If not (someone with better info correct me), the runway was at a 45 (?) degree angle off of the LOC course. You flew the approach to about 200 feet (?) until you got the "checkerboard" in sight then made a 30 degree banked turn to roll out on final. Yes - it is closed because of the danger of the approach. The new airport is Chep Lap Kok and it is located in the bay outside Kowloon (?) PEACE

PUKE

 

[Typhoon1244]

The new airport is Chep Lap Kok...

(That's funny when you say it out loud... )

 

[f9driver]

In the 60's and 70's at least, maybe later, the Chung Chow or CC approach was a couple of island ADF's on a converging downwind leg 3-4 miles apart until you were at minimums for a sort of short lead-in light arrangement pointed at the checkerboard square painted on about a 500' mountain dead ahead. The problem was that the wind blowing, on a short "wrapped up" final, was often from the right and tended to make you overshoot. They could have made money selling tickets to watch on some days. In the rain and low vis looking for a checkerboard going the wrong way for landing seemed kind of a silly or foolish way to fly. lol This is to the best of my memory.

 

[empenage]

Thats so cool. Somebody has been taking pictures of our aircraft out on the road. airliners.net has us in Basel and Geneva.

N67RX

Maybe It's not so cool...

 

[guyincognito]

I don't know that they closed it so much for safety so much as for volume. There was only one runway and there was a constant stream of heavies. (I've never seen such a large proportion of 747s at any other airport.) What great fun it was though while it lasted.

 

[Flying Illini]

My dad flies to HK regularly on business and he was very dissapointed when Kai Tak closed. He loved the approaches into there. Said it was great fun watching the faces and physical reactions of other pax who had never gone through the approach.
He loves to talk about it...always used to say he wishes he could have been in the jumpseat just once for one of those approaches!

 

[Kenny]

If anyone knows how to paste a file into a post, I've got the jepp approach plate for the IGS13.

 

[JJay]

Here's the approach plate for the IGS 13:

http://www.geocities.com/teedeez/13igs.html

 

[Cpt. Underpants]

I have a professionally produced tape of the final days of Kai Tak called "The Final Approach". If anyone would like a copy on VCD or DVD I will get it to you for the cost of the disc and postage.

VCD's will play on most DVD players and all Windows Based computers through Media Player. PM Me if you're interested.

 

[bart]

What is an aerodrome?

 

[Kenny]

Aerodrome = Airfield/Airport

Typical approach to aviation from the Brits, Aussies, colonials etc. Take a common sense term and then confuse the issue by calling it something else. Anyone who's been nuts enough to do the JAA ATP will know what I mean.

 

[JetSpeed219]

Captain Underpants, is that video any good????

 

[Cpt. Underpants]

An Oscar Winner it isn't, and it doesn't feature Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan, but if you have a serious interest in Kai Tak, the incredible IGS onto 13, and the history of the site, it's a gotta have.

How serious an Anorak are you?*








*Anorak = Spotter/Wannabe

 

[profile]

Flew that approach many times, the last time was just prior to the airport closing, seems to me to be 1998 or so. The turn to final began normally at about 350-400', about 45 degrees of turn. That's for runway 13, runway 31 had an ILS. Wasn't usually that bad unless the vis was down and there was a good tailwind out of the west down final, then it could be sporty a bit.