Landing at Kai Tak.j

Andrew Suddaby
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Landing at Kai Tak.j

This rather faded colour slide and others hereafter was taken by Frank Curzon while sitting in the right hand 'passenger' seat of one of the planes. It would probably pre-date the Summer of 1958, when the new runway jutting into the harbour was completed, although it's possible that the older runways also remained in use for a few years.(Andrew S)

Date picture taken
1950s
Tags
aerial photographs
Author(s)
Ken Sly
Gallery
Sly, Ken (1955-60)
Shows place(s)
RAF Kai Tak [????-????]
Kai Tak Airfield / Airport [????-????]
Lion Rock [????- ]
Beacon Hill [????- ]

Comments

Yes, the photo would pre-date 12 September 1958 when the reclaimed runway at Kai Tak was opened.  It shows the approach and landing from the sea to the main runway. Faintly visible is the shorter runway that crosses from left to right. The airport hangars are the darker buildings on the left.

Noted here: "The official opening of the new runway ended an era. The (Civil Aviation) Department closed the old strips with no fan-fare and fewer regrets." Source: Airport of the Nine Dragons Kai Tak, Kowloon by Captain Charles  'Chic' Eather.

Thanks for the comment Moddsey.  Flight Lieutenant Ken Sly, one of the senior officers at RAF Little Sai Wan, once  told me that following his wartime service as a Lancaster pilot and later as a flying instructor in the RAF he had always retained his pilot and instructor qualifications.  This allowed him to fly various Royal Air Force aircraft during his time in Hong Kong in the mid 1950s and into the mid 1960s. This enabled him and other ex flight crew to retain their flying pay!  He flew most of the fixed wing planes based in Hong Kong including the Hunter fighter jet.  However, he mainly flew a small two seat plane (I believe it was an Auster) to carry other officers needing to keep up their flying hours. He was asked to fly on and off all three runways (including the new one jutting out into Kowloon Bay) to check for their safety aspects. including approach heights and finals.  When he let me have a copy of this photograph he told me that that is what he had been doing on this occasion, with Frank Curzon as his passenger and photographer.

I was interest to see your comment about the opening of the new runway on 12 September because I have always remembered that we took off from that new runway. When I was repatriated at the end of my National Service I was a passenger on a Hermes aircraft (civilian version of the RAF Hastings) chartered for Service personnel from Airwork Ltd and larger and quicker than the BOAC Argonaut that had taken me out a year earlier - 2 days instead of 3.  According to my old letters, we definitely left Kai Tak on the morning of 2nd September and my memory is of seeing sea on both sides as we were taking off and hearing some sort of announcement that we were on the new runway.  I wonder whether planes were sometimes allowed to use the new runway before its official opening.  On the other hand memories can be suspect after 68 years!  Happy days.

Hi Andrew, I checked the copy of Airport of the nine dragons you kindly gave to me and it says the new runway was forced to open on 31 Aug, 15 hours ahead of schedule, because of an accident on the old runways. So the scheduled opening date was 1 Sep, meaning your 2 Sep flight did take off from the new runway.

The books says that the official opening of the new runway by the Governor happened later, on 12 Sep.

Many thanks David,

It's good to know that, while some of my old and long cherished memories have been proved wrong, this one at least is right!  Another accurate memory is of my first landing into Kai Tak at the end of October 1957 on board the BOAC Argonaut, GALHY named Arion, the final and newest of the 19 Argonauts that BOAC had operated on their long haul flights. We were treated to the following tannoy announcement by the pilot:

"Well folks, here we are over Hong Kong. Kai Tak is one of the trickiest airports I know.  Very shortly you will see buildings on either side higher than we are.  I'll try to keep the wing tips off them.  Please fasten your seat belts and extinguish all your cigarettes.  Happy landings!"  Sure enough we soon found ourselves flying in a narrow gap between some blocks of flats from which people were waving down at us. I've never known which of the two runways constructed by POW labour during the war we landed on but suspect that, with a heavily laden plane, it was probably the longer one of the two.

As always, I enjoyed watching and listening to your latest excellent analysis of the set of old slides from the late 1950s or early 1960s. I have a feeling that I once passed on to you one or two similar sets.  If so, are they of any use in that respect?

Best wishes to you and the family,  Andrew