Kai Tak Rwy13
 

To pilots who have flown the checkboard-

Out of interest, was there a rule/requirement that in order to fly the checkerboard approach, one needed to have flown it in a sim first? Or was there like "Airport" Rating (like TR) where you had to make 6 or so landings!

Also what was the approximate bank angle to make the turn?

I have no idea, but by coincidence did take a look at Kai Tak in Google Earth a few hours ago. Quite a change...

Thought I'd read that it was a 30 to 40 degree bank to the runway, but I could be wrong.

Even more exciting was the harbour turn -permitted into the early 1970s,- involving a letdown onto 31 followed by a break off to the left once through the Lai Mun gap and then a right hand 180 circling approach around the harbour over Central on the island, rejoining the normal 13 approach over Kowloon before the chequer board after Stonecutters. It was this which was responsible for building height restrictions on the north side of HK island and southern Kowloon until at least the mid 70s. Air New Zealand DC8s used this out of choice, maybe to retain recency, and Qantas operated a 707 training flight of about 2 hours duration during a scheduled turnaround about once a month doing repeated circuits and touch and gos on a pattern of 13 departures and arrivals via a 31 letdown, interrupted at intervals by normal scheduled movements which were much less numerous then.

Having operated the IGS approach to Kai Tak on a few occasions in a B747-400:

1. The initial convcersion course involved a detail at HKG, doing IGS 13 approaches and min viz VOR and NDB approaches for initial qualification -- interesting! No aircraft training required, sim fidelity deemed good enough.

2. Flying the IGS to13 was like an ILS (localiser and glideslope to 600ft decision altitude), then a turn through 47degrees to line up with the runway. The amount of bank would obviously depend on the airspeed (typically about 150kts in a B747) and the wind vector. The worst conditions often resulted in a 25kt tailwind on approach (wind 220/25) trying to push you through the centreline with the vis about 3km and the cloudbase at 600ft decision altitude. In these conditions you would need a full 30degrees bank angle. [Should not exceed that in a commercial aircraft by intention].

3. Never did the SC ndb approach for real!

4. The departures were quite critical as well. The 13 departure was through the Tung Lung? gap, and required accurate tracking of the 31 localiser through the gap, especially in a typhoon scenario. The 31 departures were likewise interesting with early turns to the left over Kowloon to Stone Cutters etc to avoid the hills.
HTH