The experience for passengers flying into the old Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong was an unforgettable one. You had to sit on the left hand side of the aircraft for the best view as you weaved between high rise buildings. Flying towards a mountain range you suddenly made a sharp right turn to land on the runway which stretched out into Hong Kong Harbour.  But the best view of this unique approach was from the flight deck as a crew member. Most airlines had to carry out special training for their crews before they were allowed to fly into Hong Kong.

The ILS - instrument Landing System is a modern navigation tool to assist arcraft in the final stages of landing. It points a glideslope radar beam from the end of the runway  for aircraft to follow. Pilots pick this up several miles out and it guides them down safely.   At Kai Tak on Runway 13 it was not possible to do this. A straight line glideslope would mean flying through mountains!   Aircraft approaching the old Hong Kong Airport to land on Runway 13 would fly over Kowloon as they were in their final descent, guided by a radar beam on a hill just outside the airport. This beam was knows not as an ILS but as an IGS because it just guided the aircraft to the point where it made a sharp right turn to point at the end of the runway.  The aircraft was usually somewhere in the region of 600 feet above ground level.  

Radio Clyde's award winning producer John MacCalman put this fascinating documentary together over a six month period in 1998 shortly before the airport closed for ever. As well as making several flight deck trips into Hong Kong thanks to British Airways and Cathay Pacific he also visited Northwest Airlines flight simulator training centre, NATCO, in Minneapolis.   Thanks to all these airlines and the flight crews - military, freighters and passenger aircraft from many different organisations and to the ATC staff at Hong Kong Tower and Approach radar without whose help the documentary would never have been made.

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For comments on the show contact the producer john.maccalman@radioclyde.com