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Typical Landing at Kai Tak International Airport

robbyrnes says...

Gday James
This is a great video, thanks for posting it.
I have long been fascinated with the Kai Tak approach, used to make it a routine flight playing MS Flight Sim. Sadly by the time I got my real wings the airport was all but closed. Got to fly in as pax a couple of times which was awesome and also one jump seat ride which was... well...

One other airport that has a reputation almost as bad as Kai Tak is Wellington International in New Zealand. Pilots call it "The Boot" as it is always trying to kick you in the arse. 99.9% of the time windy as all hell, a pure crosswind with a lot of shear as a bonus is the norm. Due to Wellington's geography the runway could not be built oriented to the prevailing winds.
The runway is short, you stuff it up one way you hit a mountain, mess it the other way you're in the water. You can bet on low cloud guaranteeing an ILS approach.
Very nasty airport.
As an interesting aside to the "The Boot", a 747 once had to land there in an emergency. To get thing back out once it was repaired the interior had to be completely gutted, minimum fuel was uploaded and the aircraft pushed right back to end of the runway. Thus at seriously minimum weight and with maximum takeoff distance available(TODA),the aircraft made a successful takeoff and flew to Auckland, (I think) where it was internally stuck back together .
It is also worth considering a Pan Am, American Airlines and Qantas requirement in 1976 was for a smaller capacity, higher performance 747, so was born the 747SP. Qantas wanted one so they could get pax capacity into Wellington!!!

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