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- - Hong Kong Airport (http://www.motorworld.net/forum/showthread.php?t=42781)

Hong Kong Airport

i got these e-mail from my dad and was in shock and rolling on the floor

Quote:

Subject: Hong Kong Airport ...the old days.

Some of you veteran folks may have had the "privilege" of landing at the Old Hong Kong Airport .

Below are the memories of an unidentified retired airline pilot:

"Fond memories?

I showed the Jepp approach plates for Hong Kong to an air traffic controller at the Denver Center . His comment was close to, "You gotta be kidding!" There were a few other words in there that I have deleted. The ILS approach was to a hill, not the runway. If you followed it all the way, you wound up in that checkerboard pattern in #3. The drill was to fly to minimums, and then crank it over into a hard right turn and dive for the runway. There was usually a cross wind, which explains some of the other pictures. It was pretty easy to get a wing tip, or an outboard engine. Some of the lucky ones got both outboard engines, the first at impact and the second trying to recover from the first engine strike. And you couldn't cheat by going below glide slope or turning in early. Large buildings downtown.

And if the approach wasn't enough fun, note that the runway is short. More than one went off the end, or the side, into the bay.

Missed approach? Note the hills. Yep, another hard right turn and climb, baby, climb!

The weather was usually not clear. Clouds were the norm, with a bit of fog or mist, and sometimes heavy rain. It's tropical there. There was an approach to the other end of that single runway. It wasn't much better. More hills and the missed approach was a hard left turn to avoid the hills and the big buildings.

Yeah, just another day at the office.

The new airport is almost easy. There are still the hills all around the bay, but at least the ILS takes you to pavement. And you don't have to look up at the people in the higher floors. You don't really appreciate flying in America until you have flown out of it. There were some airports in South America that were almost the equal of Hong Kong .

Did I mention what braking was like on a rainy day on that short runway? Or the huge puddles that formed because the airport was sinking, and no one wanted to spend any money because they were building the new airport?

http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/4...ter1yf9.th.jpg http://img483.imageshack.us/img483/9...ter2sf3.th.jpg http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/746...ter3uh6.th.jpg
http://img477.imageshack.us/img477/2...ter4rf9.th.jpg http://img477.imageshack.us/img477/5...ter5rg6.th.jpg http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/3...ter6wx3.th.jpg
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/208...ter7cs4.th.jpg http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/2...ter8lz6.th.jpg http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/6...ter9ec7.th.jpg
http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/6...ttercw4.th.jpg http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/6...er10bw6.th.jpg http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/4...er11qu9.th.jpg

They had to be good :mrgreen:

The pilots "graduation test" should be landing on this airport without sinking the plane. :lol:

Just chaos that Airport! :shock:

One of the busiest in the world thought not so big! :o

Yeah, I've been there a few times. It is definitely a scary ride. It is just like you said, you fly over the buildings and just DIVE down towards the runway. My uncle used to have a shop over in Kowloon and planes are flying so close you could virtually touch them when you are standing on the rooftop. Haha. . .

You wanna see CRAZY:

YouTube

I thought they only drift in cars. . . haha.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ae86_16v

Yeah, I've been there a few times. It is definitely a scary ride. It is just like you said, you fly over the buildings and just DIVE down towards the runway. Haha. . .

You wanna see CRAZY:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA3D9Kog1v0

Now thats what I call drifting!! :P

Look at how close the buildings are :shock:

China Airlines Airbus landing Hong Kong Kai Tak Airport é¦™æ¸¯ å•Ÿå¾·æ©Ÿå*´ 2 - YouTube

some of those drop ins are insane. i have had some quick drops b/c of weather before but nothing like those.

Yep that was one interesting air port to land at!

Quote:

Originally Posted by TNT

yeah even on a perfect day it seems scary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydjEKhk9jb0&NR

For 1 second I thought it's a terrorist attack LOL!!!

I was talking with my dad about the pictures, and he said its gotten better now, part of the reason was that the pilots could cross over chinese air space, and on top of that there are mountains on three sides of the airport. not to forget about the city too.

Yeah, Kai Tak was a pretty extreme airport in terms of landings. But interestingly, I never really felt it inside the plane.