Kai Tak

I never got into Flight Simulator 2004 (FS9). Out of the box it was pretty lifeless and just didn't run well on the system I had then. I just moved on to other sims. When the excellent freeware VistaOZ Australian terrain and airports came out I got a bit more interested just to see how they had represented places I was familiar with but again really didn't get into it.

Two weeks ago a group called 9Dragons released a FS9 version of the old Hong Kong Kai Tek airport and Hong Kong surrounds that they'd been working on for three years. They've done a amazing job. And with FS9 with all the details at max on my PC it all looks great, particularly at night. I'm finally seeing the attraction of Flight Simulator.

There is a great video of the addon on Youtube. And other videos and screenshots at the 9Dragons website.

Dusk landing, note the famous checkerboard

Daylight

Same scene at night.

The 9Dragons Kai Tak download is available as several individual file downloads at Avsim.com or as a single file from fsfiles.org (direct link). There is traffic for it at World of Traffic, though I'm not using that traffic. The only downside is that Chek Lap Kok airport (VHHH) is shown in the scenery as being under construction so you don't have the opportunity to use it. You can however install Thomas Kwong's VHHH from the AVSIM file library. There is also a boat traffic file for 9Dragons on AVSIM (ai_kt_hb.zip). Charts for VHHX are available on the Flying Tigers website.