I miss Kai Tak Airport | FerrariChat

I miss Kai Tak Airport

Discussion in 'Aviation Chat' started by TheMayor, Jun 21, 2020.

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  1. TheMayor

    TheMayor Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    #1 TheMayor, Jun 21, 2020
    Stumbled on this video on YouTube and it made me really miss Kai Tak Airport in HK. Anyone who flew into Kai Tak got a unique flying experience like nothing else in the world. And it was sort of a symbol of how tiny Hong Kong found ways to survive and grow faced with its Chinese northern neighbor looming over it.

    Yes, it was small and cramped but when you departed the plane on arrival you were right in the middle of Kowloon. And the view out your plane window as you turned to land was unforgettable. And 747's everywhere. It seemed like the 747 was build just for Kai Tak. You departed from your plane and got into a bus to take you to the terminal. Your first step out of the plane at night seemed like something from Star Wars with planes and vehicles all running around along with the sounds of jet engines and the lights of the towering apartment complexes surrounding you.

    I flew into Kai Tak (as a passenger of course) a good 50 times or so before it closed. My first time was in 1982. I flew into it on July 4rd 1998 when it was about to close and flew out at the new airport at Chek Lap Kok -- which is a pretty magnificent airport by modern standards. I watched the local TV broadcast of them turning off the runway lights and then all the trucks moving equipment to the new airport that night.

    But its hard for anyone who didn't experience it to imagine what it was like back then to look out and see people eating dinner as you flew past their window. Or watch 747's from the ground as the planes banked their way all the way to the touchdown. Whenever we gain something and we also seem to lose something.

     
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  2. energy88

    energy88 Two Time F1 World Champ
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    #2 energy88, Jun 21, 2020
    I remember the humongous "Kenwood" sign on a hanger paralleling the main runway. Sign must have been 5 stories tall.

    I also always remember when flying thru HK from SFO, a number of "police" would board and check everyone's passport and compare with a list they were carrying. A bit unnerving wondering if you would draw their attention.

    Also remember the departure boards in the airport that would spin for about 15-30 seconds before updating flight and gate information. Made a unique racket.

    One night when flying into HK from Singapore, a sudden shower materialized on the runway and the pilot aborted the landing and immediately went to full throttle and maximum climb angle. I never realized that a 747 could perform like an F-15. Of course, the 747 had hardly any fuel load at the time and I was pinned into the seat back. Amazingly, the pilot was only about 4 feet tall and happened to be staying at the same downtown hotel as me.
     
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  3. afterburner

    afterburner F1 Rookie
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    #3 afterburner, Jun 22, 2020
    And Auto Italia (Ferrari Importer) was right next the airport area too at the time.
     
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  4. tazandjan

    tazandjan Three Time F1 World Champ
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    #4 tazandjan, Jun 22, 2020
    Sounds kind of like coming down the Potomac to National/Reagan looking in all the buildings in Crystal City, but a whole lot more intense.
     
  5. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran
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    #5 Bob Parks, Jun 22, 2020
    I got another little story about National Airport. When we lived in Washington, D.C. in 1939/1940, my architect father was given the commission to do an aerial perspective full color rendering of the the new airport on the Potomac and he had to show some of the airplanes on the ramp and runways. He asked me to help him with the showing the correct types and to help with the perspective of them. I was almost 14 at the time. That airport was a big deal because of the terrible one that existed, Hoover Field. The Pentagon occupies that land now and Washington National has been superseded by Dulles and believe it or not , my name is on the Aviation Wall Of Honor there. So, I haven't been able to escape the place.
     
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  6. nerofer

    nerofer F1 World Champ

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    #6 nerofer, Jun 23, 2020
    Yep. Flew to Kai Tak just once, from Paris, in May 1995. Unforgettable: looking out of the 747 window and seing the wingtip almost bruising the traffic lights in the Streets...

    Rgds
     
  7. tazandjan

    tazandjan Three Time F1 World Champ
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    #7 tazandjan, Jun 23, 2020
    Bob- My name is on the wall, too. My aircraft commander during Desert Storm arranged to have both our names put on the wall.
     
  8. ylshih

    ylshih Shogun Assassin
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    #8 ylshih, Jun 23, 2020
    Another Kai Tak passenger here. More details about what was involved in flying into Kai Tak as a pilot.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kai_Tak_Airport#Runway_13_approach

    https://unforbiddingcity.com/2013/03/24/checkerboard-hill-and-the-crazy-kai-tak-airport-approach/

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    Checkerboard in sight at about 3:00.

    Besides the pucker factor of flying into a hillside, if you over-ran the runway, you ended up in HK harbor, which has happened.
     
  9. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran
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    #9 Bob Parks, Jun 23, 2020
    Now I know that I'm in good company. It's a bit embarrassing to me because I haven't done much of anything except to have been in a group of great guys that put my name in from my messing around with airplanes for so long.
     
  10. Eric_H

    Eric_H Rookie

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    #10 Eric_H, Jun 24, 2020
    I also am happy that I got to experience that (as a passenger). On a Cathay Pacific 747 in June of 1998 - I almost missed the experience! It was amazing.. I am SO glad I got to experience that.
     
  11. Bob Parks

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    #11 Bob Parks, Jun 24, 2020
    Last edited: Jun 24, 2020
    I never cease to be thrilled when I see the beauty of a 747 weaving its way through the buildings of Hong Kong to make a circuitous approach to the airport. I have seen some videos of rather expensive arrivals of some 747's there , too. My hats off to those pilots! And I thought that I was pretty racy to make an approach that went under the telephone wires at the bottom end of one of the San Juan Island's airports strips that required almost full throttle to get up the incline of the "runway" after touchdown. Piece of cake to the San Juan Airline guys that did it every day. Then there was the beach runway at one of the islands and the strip on the spine of the ridge on another. I have some good memories of having done them all. No big thing with little airplanes when compared to Kai Tak.
     

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