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Old 22nd March 2006 | 04:17
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CV880
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Joined: Nov 2004
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From: Asia
Cathay Pacific used to request (and pay for) a 15 knot tailwind Flight Manual supplement for all their aircraft when operating at Kai Tak however they were only interested in the take off performance data as a significantly greater payload could be carried off runway 13 with a 15KT tailwind compared to using runway 31 with all its obstacle related limitations in a 15KT headwind (several tons of payload on a 747). There were some visually hair raising take offs from some foreign operators using runway 31 simply because it was the active runway according to wind direction when CX would take a lengthy hold for a take off slot on runway 13 on the same day in the same conditions. Some UAL DC10-30 take off's come to mind during the period after UAL took over Panam's transpacific operation but they were not alone.
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