Tales from Kai Tak

[DanJabEarWarm]

Hi Paul (2 DOGS), How's doing!

Dan

[Cypherus]

Ok, maybe someone here might be able to offer a little help, I need copies of the original Airport parking charts for Kia Tak to update a current freeware project for FS9, tried a quick look at those on the offered sites but they always come out unreadable so cannot make the correct assignments, if anyone has copies and would be able to share them, much appreaciated.

[flyer_spotter]

I find this very interesting, maybe you guys will ike it too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTfD2pztbK0

[John MacCalman]

Hi Folks
I have recently left Radio Clyde after 33 years with the company. They made me an offer and I figured it was time to go out into the big bad freelance world as an aviation j**rn*l*st and broadcast producer. Ask any PPRuNers who know me and they should tell you that I do strive to achieve accuracy and truth. I guess I don’t have much of a future!
Anyway, to the point of this post. I have taken my documentary Tales from Kai Tak with me in an .mp3 format and I am happy to supply it to anyone who is interested in receiving a copy to keep. It is quite a large file size – 22.9MB – so you have to have big mailbox!
If PPRuNe were happy to host the audio as a podcast , I would be glad to let them do so. Moderators – is this possible?
While I still have the copyright on the show, I am happy for it to be distributed for free for educational purposes - as long as nobody is trying to make a buck out of it.
Meantime in my new freelance role I’ll be heading out to Hong Kong on 1st September to attend the Asian Aerospace Expo and Congress and will be at the congress sessions on Monday and Tuesday 3rd/4th. I’ll be in Hong Kong till Friday 7th then I plan on going to Guam for the weekend to do some research into the early years of Air Mike before heading to Singapore on the 11th Sept and on to Bangkok on 13th for 5 days.
If anybody fancies meeting up to talk about the Kai Tak days please send me a PM and I’ll give you my contact details.
I am also keen to talk to anyone who worked for Air Mike in the early years or worked on the development of air services in Micronesia for a new project I am working on.
Look forward to hearing from you.
John

[2 Dogs]

Cypherus try this - click on the Kai Tak link(checkerboard) http://www.2-dogz.com
Dan, Hi. ??? Do i know you ??

GargleBlaster photos here - click on the Kai Tak link(checkerboard) http://www.2-dogz.com

John Hope you got a good severance package. Glad to heat Kai Tak is now available as mp3. I did ask for it a while ago as the missus "disposed" of the original tape you gave me a while back.
I would love to meet and have a beer and a yarn about Kai Tak but I now avoid HK like the plague. Maybe some other time
Check yr pm's for my email address.

[Roundtail Jimbo]

You should put that video on YouTube

Hey, sanook, there is a real lack of quality videos of the Kai Tak approach shot from inside the cockpit. Most of them are very poor quality, shaky, poorly lit, and not focused out the window at the key moments. I'd love to get a copy of your video since you say you had the camera on the dash the whole time. Have you had a chance to digitize it? If not, let me know and I can help you out.

[RRAAMJET]

Roundtail: I, too, have a flightdeck copy of the IGS, taken from a professionally set up camera at night on an L-1011 of CX. I flew the app. from the right seat; I seem to remember the purpose was to provide the Sim builders with an updated visual model for CX. The copy I have was given to me by mgmt after the event - it's on tape, however, haven't yet digitised it. The FE was Bruno - retired in '95 - can't remember the Capt.

I remember I was briefed to not fly wide, even though it was a crystal clear night, but fly right down to minimums and intercept the visual lead-in lights (which were not for the IGS, contrary to misconceptions, but for the visual from over the western harbour - thus they "join" the approach course from the right). The wind was calm, so that helped; normally on a clear day we'd side-step left to give a longer final segment.

The recording starts at 10000ft heading west towards Cheung-Chau. There should be a copy still with CX managers, I would have thought, or with the sim-builders (Rediffusion?).

[Roundtail Jimbo]

Kai Tak Videos

One would have hoped that the BBC or some other professional news outlet would have done a documentary about Kai Tak before it was scheduled to close. I've seen some BBC World video, but again the quality is not great. I've been looking around, but the only video available seems to be amateur video taken by jump seaters.

Anyway, if I can be of any help in digitizing your video, please let me know. I have a professional setup here at home.

[Clutch Cargo]

Great thread about Kai Tak. Enjoy reading it all. We have some new video on Kai Tak for flight simulation we are releasing. I will post links when ready. ay bring back some happy memories.

[cykalan]

stonecutters "island"

forget:

holy smoke! stonecutters "island"!!

a while ago in a conversation about the IGS approach with a skipper and i mentioned "stonecutters island" somehow in the conversation...and the skipper jokingly said i reminded him how stonecutters was an "island"...

nice pic...!!

[Dixi Normus]

The next time out of CLK try tuning SC (Stone Cutter) 238 NDB and RW (377) NBD. I think one of them might still be working. However they are not in any current FMGC database of nav aids. SL (Sha Lo Wan) NDB, the lead in NDB for the IGS localizer, was replaced by the current LC NDB.

[Roundtail Jimbo]

Kai-Tak

Excellent! I bought a DVD from Air Utopia but the quality was horrible...

[chris keeping]

Great video, flyer spotter, thanks for sharing it.

[John MacCalman]

Hi Folks,


I am delighted to say I am back at Radio Clyde on a temporary assignment so I was able to check the audio store and the radio documentary TALES FROM KAI TAK is still available on their system.

Should the web page disappear I believe you can access the audio directly through this link.

I belive Clutch Cargo has also to make the documentary available through avsim.com

PM me if anyone needs a CD copy but be quick as my access to a burner may be limited.

[Clutch Cargo]

Hi John,

Marcus here (aka "Clutch"). What a nice surprise to see you here! Yes, we included your broadcast with our release of 9Dragons. It was a big hit as so many flight simulation hobbyists had never heard it before. I take it the Smithsonian finally got their copy?

Also tried to announce that here a few weeks back the release of our free scenery software, 9Dragons depicting Kai Tak in the 1990's for FS2004, and a few of our videos about it. Thought the real-world pilots would get a kick out of it shaking up a few memories. But for some reason they put the post in some unseen "back-water" forum... oh well.

We even have an article about it on page 3 of the Sunday edition of the South China Morning Post (January 13 edition). Lot's of emails from Hong Kong after that went out.

Just wanted to shout a howdy and say thanks again for a great broadcast.

[greywings]

Chris Keeping

Chris,

I know it is almost a year since your post, so I hope you receive this.

You are generous to a fault re. the China Airlines 744 that went for a swim in the harbour. Although you are quite right that the weather was atrocious (as it often was!), the captain made a serious boo-boo that involved either not using the autobrakes / spoilers / reversers properly, or deciding to let gravity bring the aircraft to a halt. Either way, the result was a very wet (almost new) 744, and a challenge for the Hong Kong Boys in Blue.

"'Ello. 'ello, what have we here? Sergeant Wong, hand me my explosive pack, please, and be quick about it"

The one good thing about removing the tail - as far as China Airlines management was concerned, anyway, was that the distinguishing logo was no longer visible.

(Shades of the CAAC Trident that also went for a swim, in similar weather conditions a few years earlier).

"Mister Wong (no relation to Sergeant Wong), please hand me my can of paint, thus to obscure the company markings".

Chris, if you are still instructing, do remember the day doing 'snap rolls' in the Slingsby, and other delights.

Greywings

[chris keeping]

Hello "Grey Wings" well maybe I was a tad. No I'm not instructing anymore, gave it up when Kai Tak closed. The fixed wing fleet was required to move to Sek-Kong when Kai Tak closed, and the PLA were (are?) a little bit security concious. Flying arbitarily cancelled if their helicopters were on the pads. Bit of a pain if you had organised students for the weekend, mid week flying was a no no, unlike the hospitality afforded to the club when 28 Squadron was in-situ. The Club is still at Kai Tak but is not quite the same. Michael retired a couple of years back and now spends most of his time in China. Good days though.

[greywings]

Thanks for the update, Chris.

I have been in touch with Graham Barlow and posted my email address with him.

Look foward to hearing more news!

GW

[ampan]

A legend

Sat on the left-hand side of a DC10 in 1981, scared sh*tless.

Am not a member of the Gordon Vette fanclub, but pages 191 to 196 of "Impact Erebus" provide an excellent description of what was involved.

And it wasn't uncommon to go around the Checkerboard course and be a little bit off, you often were required to do this:

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

[ampan]

managed to fire-up the scanner

"The harbour circuit at Hong Kong, which I describe below, has now been discontinued at Kai Tak with the advent of wide-bodied jets. However the IGS system which now takes you down through 600 feet still requires a manual visual approach on the final stages of the gully flight, and demands good interfacing between pilot and machine. Should this type of manoeuvring be attempted over most cities of the world, the crew would find themselves in prison. At Hong Kong, it was the only way the airport could be used in certain weather conditions.

When the wind was blowing off the Pacific towards the China land mass, the 100-tonne jet had to be swung and tightly manoeuvred for eight miles through the narrow sea channel which divides the mass of mainland Kowloon and the nearly vertical walls of Hong Kong Island. This was precision flying of a sort rarely demanded of big jets anywhere. At one early point, in the Lei Yue Mun Gap, the channel constricted to a throat less than half-a-mile wide, and the shore lights whipped past the wingtips like glinted moisture drops in a tunnel. At night, and when the cloud base was down to 1500 feet or lower, it was akin to moving at high speed through a convoluted tunnel — only without the benefit of rails. Here, surely, was the most exacting interface between man and machine; the point where a pilot became the organic cortex with nerve ends grafted on to a mass of metal moving along at 150 knots — a speed only just sufficient to give control, but uncomfortably fast for the environment or rugged coastline, ships' masts and high rise buildings. Every featherweight of pressure applied to the control yoke and rudder had to be precise, every change of flap setting and throttle applied to the second. It was a time when all that counted was the intuition, feel and the reflexive recall of a good pilot.

On let down from above 30,000 feet, the aircraft was vectored on a radio beam towards Checker Board Hill, an escarpment lit by sodium lights hard by the Kowloon runway. This beam brought the aircraft down in a long, easy descent to position it over the Tathong Channel, the south-eastern gateway to Hong Kong. The intention was to get the aircraft below the cloud base before it entered the Lei Yue Gap — into the 'tunnel'. Should the landing be from the south-east, the runway was nicely positioned two miles ahead - a few degrees turn to the right and a final alignment just before touch-down. But more often the landing was from the opposite end, Runway 13, from inland Kowloon. When Runway 13 was in use, the two pilots had to quickly establish visual references to orientate themselves as they broke cloud above the narrow gap. Then manual skill took over. They were 'eyeballing it'.

The tight twists of Victoria Harbour and the turn-around over Kowloon were navigated in a way more familiar to navigators. A series of coloured lights signalled the way, and the aircraft was lined up on these one at a time. As each light slipped beneath the nose of the machine, the aircraft was swung on course for the next, a mile-and-a-half, maybe two, ahead — 30 to 40 seconds flying time. These variously coloured lights were so critical for pilots that neon flashing lights were not allowed in the colony lest they confused or delayed recognition of a marker for a moment. But memorizing the positions and colours of these lights was only half the pilot load. They also had to memorize the different overshoot procedure for each should they inadvertently find themselves a fraction off the right heading and unable to make the exactly timed swing from one light to the next. It was memorizing for instant recall, a precise compass heading and climb-out rate — no time to ponder when flying
through a canyon at a mile every '20 seconds. And while every habitable yard of Hong Kong and Kowloon resembles a tightly packed glow worm cave at night, there was no safety in the black voids. Peaks, as abrupt as stalagmites, rear up within two miles of Runway 13's threshold, and there are unlit, high-rise buildings. Swinging low through the basin of light reflected between harbour and cloud, these granite teeth usually lay beyond the visual rim, swarthed in misty cloud.

Despite the captain's warning to passengers what to expect, words over a PA system could never adequately prepare them for the experience. Some momentarily thought the captain had taken leave of his senses as they peered transfixedly out
of the windows — upwards at apartment building balconies. As the aircraft swung more tightly into the approach, they noticed what appeared to be a wall of buildings converging on the nose of the aircraft, now bouncing and shaking only
50 per cent above stalling speed. For a few, this brief glance was enough. They stared trancelike at the carpet, lips moving in urgent communication with the powers that be. For others, the only concession allowed this unusual approach were white knuckles squeezing the arm-rest molecules into denser composition. But for most, it was spellbound unreality; a fairyland of lights on all sides, racing, ever-changing.

On the flight deck, the luxury of this fixity of viewing — to focus, relate, absorb — was only for the pilot in the jump seat, the man observing the approach. For the captain at the controls, it was only the interpretation of a peripheral blur
that enabled him to accurately position the machine. First the entry through the Gap; a careful left-hand turn, assessing and regulating his angle of bank; applying just enough back pressure on the control column to get the right radius of turn without losing height — but careful, a fraction too much back pressure and you're back in the cloud without visibility. A gradual right-hand turn, adjusting for wind drift as the lights of the North Point, Causeway and Wanchai slip past on the left. Skirting the thrusting bulk of West Point on Hong Kong Island, and rolling the machine more steeply to bring it around inside Green Island, on heading for Stone Cutters.

The aircraft should be coming around on the 50 degree arc (200 to 250 degrees true) of the flashing red directional lights on Stone Cutters Island. Ease off the back pressure fractionally to stay below that convex cloud ahead, while scanning to confirm heading, height and airspeed, and that all the landing checks, with the exception of final flap, are completed. You listen briefly to the Airport Terminal Information Service to confirm landing conditions, joining the others in the crew at the same time in trying to pick out the lighted array of aerial masts atop Stonecutters. When they show up, ease a further adjustment to put them over to the left. As the
shoreline of Kowloon comes around, power settings are adjusted to set the aircraft descent at 500 feet for the approach.

The directional flashing white lights of Cheungshwawan and Yau Yat Chuen are buried deep among the apartment buildings of Kowloon. Now the crew are scanning systematically for the flashing red lights of the Checker Board Hill. It is sighted, and the power and speed are adjusted again to bring the aircraft around to the right of the checker board towards the threshold lights. The machine has now come around almost the full 180 degrees, and is committed to the carefully regulated swing through the gully. The pilot has to try not to cut the corner to the runway, yet avoid closing in too near the rising apartment buildings, or the cliff face of the Checker Board. His senses are pitched taut, his judgments turning over, his cue sampling rate at its fastest. While the passengers are subjected to a close inspection of the drying garments poled out of apartment windows, the pilot is unconsciously using the same cues — but using the
rate at which they blurr past in his peripheral vision — to negotiate the final swing to the right through the canyon. His fixity of focus is now centered on a point about one third of the way along the runway.

If his trajectory is good, it will remain relatively stationary, though closing. The effect is not unlike watching the lights of an approaching car at night on a long stretch of straight road. They seem unmoving, but then at the last moment they flash away at a tangent. But a car driver is not coping with wind shear, drift and varying sink rates.

The co-pilot will be calling speeds, descent rates, altitude - and will have set up the overshoot beacons, headings and heights should the aircraft not key into the narrow slot for landing, or (unusually) a sudden wind change occur. A final thought. It could be nicely on trajectory, but a fraction too much speed and it will overrun the far sea wall. Too slow, and there will be a stall. You will help take in the washing.

But you reach the right point to initiate your flare. Power levers are snapped into reverse as the gear touches. A quick glance to see the nose is aligned with the runway centre line, and another check of the distance remaining. The nose gear touches down. Full reverse power selected, and braking as required, while the aircraft slows to 80 knots. The long taxi through the massed parking places to the docking position gives time for the pulse to slacken. You've done it many times before, but there is always the sense of pride in having your skills and judgments tested to the limits."