I got my ride into Kai Tak on July 1st 1998 (5 days before the airport closed) and it indeed was the thrill of a lifetime for this airline junkie. As a dispatcher with an American airline I was able to ride the jumpseat on FedEx from NRT to HKG. (Ah, the good old day, pre 9/11.) It was an MD-11, N604FE named Hollis. As Stanley said, we turned from downwind to base right over Chek Lap Kok and followed the IGS to Checkerboard Hill. The turn to final was right over the soccer pitch in the park next to the hill. We were a bit high and the sink-rate in the turn was as high as 1400 fpm but the Captain, who was an old Flying Tigers guy with hundreds of landing at Kai Tak, made his final landing there a grease job. The best part was I got the whole thing on video tape. I spent the next five days drinking in Kai Tak, taking lots of photos and video. As the final Dragon Air flight landed I was on a lower floor of the car park. It was a sad day but I was glad to be there. As a postscript, I was lucky enough to have an article about this trip published in the October 1998 edition of Airliners. Cheers- Tom > > From: Stanley Powroznik <avialot@xxxxxxxxx> > Date: 2003/04/08 Tue PM 09:53:56 EDT > To: AIRLINE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: In the flight deck during approach on an airliner > > Quote: ".....having a chance to sit in an airline cockpit during landing, given how very difficult that is to do these days in person is a major treat...." > > Considering that most approaches to many airports in the world nowadays are straight in and pretty routine and nothing out of the extraordinary - it is those like yours truly that got the priviledge to experience seated in the jumpseat aboard Hong Kong's de-facto airline Cathay Pacific Airways aboard 747-400 (VR-HOT) and also on China Southern's 777-200 (B-2053) on the 'checkerboard' ILS 13 approach into the former Kai Tak Airport before it closed....a true "thrill of a lifetime" and I sincerely do not think there is any other approach in the world today that can top this ! > > The real thrill starts when the aircraft flies over what is nowadays Chek Lap Kok, then flying pass Stonecutter's Island and aiming for the infamous checkerboard atop a hill in Kowloontong Park close enough with the terrain being surrounded by mountains and Lion's Rock and then make that 45 degrees angle approach lining up with runway 13 of Kai Tak. Being seated behind the first officer on VR-HOT, I stared in awe out the cockpit looking at how the outer starboard wing and winglet 'seemed' to slice 'to close for comfort' over the rooftops of Kowloon on the final seconds before touchdown.... > > If this former Kai Tak ILS 13 approach is not the most demanding of all on the pilots flying widebodies and a totally unique thrill of a lifetime for any civilian who has experienced it in the jumpseat, then what is ? ;-) > > > > > > > --------------------------------- > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Tax Center - File online, calculators, forms, and more >