I was born after 1997, footage of kaitak airport always give me goosepump even I did not have the chance to spot it. I could not imagine living just beneath those big birds. And look at the skills the pilots demonstrated to approach the runway. dang. just amazing

Lived there for 9 years (1988-97) and it was a great place back then. Kai Tak approach was like a great theme park ride!

I’m guessing not a lot of teary eyes when this airport closed

I flew into Hong Kong, Kai Tak, on a Cathay Pacific Boeing 747-400 from London, in July 1988. It was quite a ride ! Thanks for sharing.

THANK YOU for a lovely look at a time that seems like yesterday. Seeing the “lettuce” livery on those 74s and TriStars left me grinning, ear to ear.

747 paradise

Nice video. Great to see the old Cathay colours. I worked Kai Tak tower for the last year of operations and greatly enjoyed it. You guys had the turn to final figured out better than any other airline.

@beastyachtracer

8 ай бұрын

I was very lucky to have witnessed the fine airmanship both from inside the plane and outside at Kai Tak and it was always impressive how the local Cathay pilots had it down pat even in tricky conditions.

Fantastic capture! May I feature this approach in one of my next episodes? Of course with a link back to your original video. All the best to you :)

@beastyachtracer

4 күн бұрын

@3MinutesofAviation Yes please do and please mention that the Cathay pilots like my father in the clip were very smooth operators when flying in and out of Kai Tak with it's terrain and weather challenges.

Nice video. I only got to do the IGS 13 in the DC-8. By the time I was flying the 747 Kai Tak was closed. I hear the checkerboard was restored recently, hopefully somebody will post a vid of it.

@beastyachtracer

3 ай бұрын

Thankyou for the kind comment, IGS in a DC-8 had to be quite the experience. I remember as a youngster a very choppy one on the 707 with dad back in the 70's, we had a lightning strike and he lost his instruments temporarily followed by the F/E busily popping circuit breakers back in and on we went!!! It was quite the place to land with the terrain and weather challenges.

thanks a lot for uploading it! i can see my home!! it was used to be so loud everyday aircrafts hanging above Kowloon City

With the bonus of your dad in the LHS …

I think your dad joined about 1976 or 1977. Good man and good operator. I think from recall you used to live out on Castle Peak Rd.

@beastyachtracer

3 күн бұрын

@gkwalker52 Dad joined in November 74. We lived out at Castle Peak until 1980 and then moved to Clear Water Bay. Thank you for your kind words about dad, he loved proper hand flying and running a smooth operation. I'm glad I was able to bring this footage bvk to life on KZread for all to see.

i can show my children what it was like back then in the 90s

This Kai Tak approach reminds me of Peter walking on water with Jesus. Everything was okay and he walked on water without any problems of whatsoever. Until he got scared because the situation was not normal. So if you have complete faith in the procedure, Kai Tak is okay. However, it does look quite scary. Especially the infamous checkerboard turn. No wonder it was called the Kai Tak heart attack.

Lmao these pilots made that approach with out breaking a sweat.

"60, 20, 10..." Lmao

*privet privet 2009 playing in the back*