Taipei to Hong Kong

Departing Taipei's Taoyuan airport for Hong Kong, China. I took this snapshot of the instrument panel, just as I was climbing through 2,500 feet.

Today's flight, involves no challenges - just a beautiful hazy day for an uneventful climb to my cruising altitude of 26,000 feet.

Arriving in the Hong Kong area, with the "new" airport far ahead and to the right of the hilly Chek Lap Kok island. Interestingly enough, I've played around enough in Microsoft Flight Simulator X, that I'm fairly sure I recognize the location and shape of the "old" Kai Tak airport, just down there below my right wing, protruding into the bay with the long rectangular shape of a runway, with its surrounding taxiway and ramp areas, that are no longer visible, since that airport was closed in 1998. The approach to Kai Tak airport was far more challenging than the usual straight-in approach at most large airports, due to a moderately high and threatening hill, with a large orange and white marking painted on it, just off the approach end of the runway. Because of the landscape, they had to point an ILS directly at the hill, which required a sharp right turn just before landing, to align with the runway. I remember as a kid, when Dad brought home a short 8mm Kai Tak approach safety film, and watched it using our home projector. One of the Pan Am training pilots had taken the film from the cockpit of an airliner, so that other pilots that hadn't flown into Kai Tak recently, could refresh themselves on how the approach looked.

Approaching the airport on a high and wide base leg, following the published approach to runway 07R. Nice view of the expansive airport, on the other side of the hill on the island of Chek Lap Kok.

The approach at the "new" (vintage 1998) Hong Kong airport, arriving on a long straight-in final over the South China Sea, is very tame, compared to the Kai Tak approach.




I'm thinking my next flight will be to Manila, Philippines. My niece-in-law spent a few months there, last year. I also had a coworker just before I retired, whose family was from the Philippines.