A friend of mine sent me a link to some dramatic photos of airliners landing at Hong King’s Kai Tak (VHHX) airport in the 1980s and 1990s. He asked me if I had landed there in Microsoft Flight Simulator. I had not…so I decided to change that. And it was a bit ugly at the end too. You’ll see!

Taipei to Hong Kong

Loading up a historical Cathay Pacific A310 livery from the iniBuilds manager, I was all decked out in an appropriate look for the flight from Taipei, Taiwan to Hong Kong.

My takeoff from Taipei Taoyuan International Airport (RCTP) was uneventful with some light rain affecting visibility but otherwise not impeding my flight. Soon we were above the clouds with the silhouettes of the tallest peaks in Taiwan off the port side of the airplane.

Then we entered the Taiwan strait and on over China. That’s when the flight got interesting.

Now it’s important to know that Kai Tak is no longer used and the new Hong Kong International Airport (VHHH) airport is what flights in the modern day use. Microsoft and Asobo did add the old airport in as a special scenery for the 40th anniversary. It’s a fun addition to the sim but there is one issue: there’s no SIDS or STARS available from within the flight planner.

I’m very much still a beginner at this sort of thing so I decided to look up an approach chart for the airport and at least try and approximate the approach. I found this chart which I very loosely aimed to approximate.

The ugly landing

I decided to loosely follow that pattern on the final approach and with the ATC not really cooperating after entering into the approach I decided to ignore their instructions and do my own thing.

Making my final set of turns I was now flying over Hong Kong and doing the Runway 13 checkerboard approach. So named because of the painted checkerboard on a hillside to act as a navigational aid for the approach. Once you have the board in site you need to make a sharp right turn and stabilize quickly for the landing.

With every warning going off in the cockpit I managed to get the A310 into a reasonably good position. And surprisingly set the airplane down onto the runway. I messed up my key binding for my reversers causing a momentary panic… but it was ultimately ok.

I even recorded it on video for my friend and for everyone else too. It was ugly, but I did it and I figured I’d share both to capture the moment and to also show that you can have fun and a bit of adventure even with an airliner in a flight sim. Butter landing? How about an ugly one that you still pull off. I love that sort of thing!

After landing I taxiied the airplane over a bridge and into the parking area before shutting down. Exciting, exhilarating, and probably not completely by the book. But that’s the kind of fun you can have.