Back when I was an FO at Polar. 1997 I remember this day like it was yesterday, but I can't remember what I ate last night...
Watching that ignited my PTSD of doing approaches to Kunsan ROK just about every other night in the winter was pitch f’n black, snowing, bumpy, and 200 & 1/2...never felt more alone in my life flying the F-16 in that crap...I can’t even imagine what it’s like in a flying skyscraper!
A "flying skycraper" flying BETWEEN skyscrapers! I'll bet that every approach to Kai Tak, even in perfect weather, was a bit of a nail-biter. In bad weather like that, it must have been almost terrifying. All things considered, Kai Tak's safety record through the years was quite remarkable. Rather lucky, I would say.
I've flown (as a passenger) into Kai Tak well over 100 times, the first being 1982. The last being one week before they closed it. In fact I flew out of the new airport on return. All on 747. What is still amazing to me is they moved the entire airport OVERNIGHT . I was in Hong Kong as they did it. Hundreds of vehicles and equipment on the road that evening and then having operations up and running the next morning.
Reminds me a bit of when they switched in Sweden from driving on the left side of the road to the right. At noon one day, all traffic came to a halt, everyone carefully moved from one side of the road to the other (I wonder how that worked on divided highways) and resumed driving.
It helped that they did it (mostly) on Sunday afternoon, and that almost all vehicles were already left-hand drive.
As a pilot I would much rather fly this approach than pushing a few buttons and coupling the AP to the LOC/GS.
Thank you for the video. That looks pretty nerve wracking... Can the wipers work at cruise speed? I never considered they would be used other than during taxiing. I figured any other time the speed is fast enough to clear the rain fast by itself. They looked to help more than I expected on approach.
It certainly was, but there were many, many hours that were so stressful I’d have preferred to be anywhere else. Even the greatest flights ever, I sometimes didn’t realize I was having fun til I stepped off the last rung of the ladder afterwards. I’m sure you understand. There was likely nothing fun about that approach.
Windshield wipers. I recall that we had pneumatic rain removal systems on some 707's that blew a very high speed sheet of air over the windshield. I don't recall what other airplanes may have had it.. Scary video, Lou.
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