Checkerboard Hook (the Kai Tak Drift)!! What a Ride!!

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(this is a cool cockpit view of one of the most legendary approaches on Earth).

I rode these rides so many times into Kai Tak (Hong Kong) I can't even count them and they always got your attention as a PAX. Here's a view of the real deal from the flight deck of a 747.

Notice at :57 the checkerboard comes into view. That's what they're lining up on, before the BIG turn onto final. We used to sit up there below a parking lot just above that checker board and drink beer and watch.

Even as a (former) pilot, those approaches still just amaze me.

HK was one of the best approaches to ever ride...all time best. The good left seats made it worth a lifetime!

Kai Tak is gone now in favor of Chep Lok Kok (I worked there on delivery), but it will always be a legend in anyone's mind who ever landed there!

The memories of Kai Tak will live on forever!!

What you are seeing is the famed hard right turn off the checkerboard into Runway 13 at Kai Tak. You flew an ILS approach straight into a mountainside (where the checkerboard is). Just before you slammed into the mountainside you broke out of the approach into a steep right bank for a visual approach onto the short runway. It was truly a 'one of a kind' experience. One you never forgot.

It was very rare you came into Hong Kong without making this approach though it did happen occasionally. The wind seldom blew that way. To land the other direction was a pretty much straight in approach.

I flew my parents over to Asia once. I had told Dad in advance to be looking for the big right turn prior to landing (he's an old B-17 guy from WWII and aviation nut). I'd really hyped it up for weeks before they got on the plane. When they arrived one of the very first things I asked him was what he thought of the approach. He said "well, I was all excited for this epic approach and it turned out to be nothing at all...what's so special about it?" It turns out the day he arrived was one of those rare weather days when the approach was the other way.

After HK I took them down to Singapore and Malaysia. When it was time for them to go home I flew with them back to HK to see them off. On the way in to Kai Tak I'd forgotten they hadn't experienced the turn. Dad was sitting next to me. When we began the turn he grabbed my arm and blurted out "HOLY S###!!!" really loud. "I DIDN'T THINK IT WOULD BE LIKE THAT!!" People were looking. I started laughing.

I always looked forward to it. Riding in a Boeing 747, standing on its wing tip, and making a turn like an F-16, then landing on a postage stamp. All pilots who did this had to be pre-certified on this specific approach before they were allowed to land at Kai Tak.

Here's another one, this time in the rain. You get a really good view of the "checkerboard" in this one.



I'm sorry...this was just "cool" stuff!

This is what the famous right hand turn looked like from the ground...



...and this is what it looked like to land...(looking the other way)




Yeeeee Haaaaw!!!!