A day out with the Government Flying Services (GFS).

As part of my job at Hong Kong International Airport I was invited to join the GFS for a day of flying as a passenger to see how they operate, what help they need from us air traffic controllers, and to learn more about how we can work even better together than we are now. This was the 2nd time I was invited to spend a day with the GFS, and this time I was lucky enough to be invited for a familiarization flight both in the Challenger 600 and a Airbus Helicopter H175 (EC75). Date of flight was June 16, 2020.

After meeting our guide for the day at GFS headquarters we headed outside to the apron, where the Challenger 600 was ready to take us out, mission of the day was first some locak IFR training (3 approaches to runway 25R) and then some low level search and rescue training to the southeast of Hong Kong. It was my first time flying in a business-jet sized aircraft, but since it is mainly used for maritime surveillance and search and rescue it is not equipped with any luxury like ‘normal’ business jets 😀

It was a quite cloudy day we were out flying, so the views from the Challenger were not the the best, but there were some breaks in the clouds so I could make out some landmarks.

While doing the missed approach of runway 25R, we could a very good view of all the aircraft that were parked on taxiways due to the reduction of flights during the COVID19 outbreak.

Cockpit view on the approach

Although the aircraft is primarily for search and rescue and other maritime operations, it is also sometimes used for passengers, and there were a couple of reasonably comfortable seats in the back.

After landing back at the airport we went back inside the GFS headquarters for a cup of coffee, and then headed out for a local flight in a helicopter. Our helicopter for today would be a Airbus H175 Cheetah.

After departure we headed towards Pak Mong village and held here for a couple of minutes, before following North Lantau Expressway to Tsing Ma Bridge, on to Stonecutters and then West Kowloon.

We then arrived in West Kowloon where we were holding for a few minutes before continuing the flight.

Then we headed via Lion Rock to Sha Tin Pass and towards North Boarder.

Then we followed the river marking the boarder between Hong Kong and Mainland China almost all the way from Tung Lo Hang to Yunongcun

At this stage some bad weather started moving in, and we headed back to GFS via Sha Tin pass, Tsing Yi bridge, just sough of Peng Chau and then Silvermine before arriving back at the airport.

Overall I had a fantastic time with the GFS this day, it was great meeting some of the crew members that work with on the radio on a daily basis, and I felt very welcome and well taken care of. I would like to extend a huge thank you to all who helped in accommodating this familiarization, and I really hope I get to do it again one day!