You could like, then unlike, then like, repeat as long as you want. Not the same but it's something.
Katamarino's Round the World flight
- Thread starter Katamarino
- Start date
Any pictures from the party?
Spring Ford
Line Up and Wait
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flyingcheesehead
Touchdown! Greaser!
I can't wait for the final recap and analysis! 
GaryM
En-Route
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Gary M
I can’t wait for the repeat. I’ll bet he can shave two years off his current record.
flyingcheesehead
Touchdown! Greaser!
The most efficient way to fly a long leg like this (or really, any leg) is at a particular angle of attack that results in an airspeed somewhat higher than Vg, and is independent of altitude. In reality, you either slowly climb throughout the flight, or you reduce power as the flight proceeds.
If you're interested in lots of details, this paper by Mel Byington of ERAU is the best reference. Or, for a much more mathy theoretical treatment, see this.
CheaterRoss isn’t the only one on this board to fly to Hawaii this year, just sayin’. (My trip may have been a little bit less arduous).
Ghery
Touchdown! Greaser!
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Ghery Pettit
Ross isn’t the only one on this board to fly to Hawaii this year, just sayin’. (My trip may have been a little bit less arduous).
We'll ride the airlines to Hawaii later this month. Second trip this year. Another one late in January. Kauai is lovely. #29 in terms of trips to Hawaii coming up, most to Kauai.
Oh, a bit late to the party, but congratulations on the RtW trip being complete.
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Richard Digits
This just popped into my video feed, my apologies if it has already been posted elsewhere as it's a couple weeks old:
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Snorting his way across the USA
It must have been cold that day. Not that I have any complaints.
Great job, Ross.
Katamarino
Pattern Altitude
Well, given that planning is well under way for the next big adventure, I should probably close out the last write-ups of this one here for those who don't follow the website.
The last "write-up" post here covered the flight to New Caledonia, so that's where we pick up. I spent about 10 days exploring the islands of New Caledonia and those flights are written up on the website (https://katamarino.co.uk/index.php/2023/10/09/round-the-world-the-pacific-part-4/); I'll stick to the longer legs here.
======================================
I slept poorly, apprehensive about the upcoming flights and the uncertainties around fuel. As well as the issues with the unreliable handlers in American Samoa, the fuelers on Kiritimati had stopped responding to any phone calls or emails, so it wasn’t entirely clear how or if fuel would be available on arrival there despite having pre-paid for the barrels long in advance. Today, however, should be more straightforward; a five hour flight to Fiji. Despite being offensively overpriced in terms of handling and airport fees, the handling agents there were at least helpful and responsive so I was confident that all would go as planned.
Leaving the hotel at 0530, before sunrise, we met Marc at Magenta airport. He and Paola would be flying the Spirit of Noumea over to the main airport with us, to see us off. Marc handled the radios for us as a flight of two and we set off to La Tontouta International, parking up again in spot P65 to be met by the airport representative.
With Marc and his globe-trotting WT9 at Magenta
Amedee lighthouse
Mark and Paola at La Tontouta
The formalities outbound took a little longer than they had on the way in, but were still quick and efficient. Fees were extremely reasonable, which would be the last time I could say that until we arrived in Hawaii. Back out at the aircraft we said our final goodbyes, started up, and called for clearance.
ATC let us know that it would be a 15 minute wait for departure due to an incoming IFR airliner. I asked if we could instead depart VFR, and change to IFR en route; this was approved and we were given clearance for an immediate takeoff. In coordination with ATC we flew a wide circle out to the west of the airport to gain altitude, reaching 6,000ft over the LTO VOR before turning east across the mountains that make up the central spine of New Caledonia and continuing the climb up to 9,000ft.
Climbing out from La Tontouta
Mountains along the spine of New Caledonia
An A330 from the local airline, Air Calin, touched down beneath us as we passed back over the airport. This had been the IFR traffic which was on its way in as we departed. We settled in at 9,000ft, achieving a true airspeed of 140 knots as we cruised on out past the Loyalty Islands and were handed over to Nadi Radio on the HF. The forecast tailwind never turned up, and winds remained neutral for the entire five hour crossing.
Final views of New Caledonia
The route
100 miles out we started to pick up Nadi on the VHF, and said goodbye to the HF controller. We started a descent over a variety of tiny out-islands and reefs, being cleared for a visual approach to runway 02 over the Denarau Marine. Even from this altitude some of the yachts moored up here were astonishing in their luxury; they’d be even more impressive later that day when we saw them from ground level.
Approaching Fiji
Descending into Fiji
Denarau Marina, from left base to land at Nadi
The ground controller directed us to stand 13 at the main terminal and we parked up to be met by the friendly and efficient Davila and her handling team from Sunflower Aviation. The two young men assisting her were both pilots in training and were interested and excited to see a little Cessna 182 arriving internationally.
Nadi airport
Parked at Nadi
We refueled on arrival, the last time that we’d fuel from a truck (well, a trailer in this case) instead of barrels until Hawaii. We uploaded 470 liters; I had managed to identify a potential source of avgas in Independent Samoa with the help of the fantastic Stephen Death, and planned to load one barrel there. Carrying a little extra fuel out of Fiji would enable me to avoid buying a second of the very expensive Samoan barrels.
Passage through the airport with the assistance of the Sunflower team was quick and easy, and they even gave us a ride to the Denarau Marina. Juvy had arranged our accommodation on a little resort off the coast, set on its own small island. The catch was that the only access was by boat. It was a few hours until the evening boat was set to depart so we spent it at the shopping mall by the marina, starting off with a fantastic Indian meal for a late lunch.
Denarau Marina
The boat eventually left an hour late, and took us on the 30 minute ride across to Serenity Island. Resort staff had gathered to sing a welcome song as we were shuttled to the shore on a smaller vessel. After check-in I stayed in the lobby for a while longer to work on some planning for the next legs, and was treated to a display of traditional Fijian dance by some of the staff. After calling family at home in the UK to give them an update I headed off to bed, looking forward to a couple of days relaxing on Serenity Island.
Traditional dance on Serenity Island
The last "write-up" post here covered the flight to New Caledonia, so that's where we pick up. I spent about 10 days exploring the islands of New Caledonia and those flights are written up on the website (https://katamarino.co.uk/index.php/2023/10/09/round-the-world-the-pacific-part-4/); I'll stick to the longer legs here.
======================================
I slept poorly, apprehensive about the upcoming flights and the uncertainties around fuel. As well as the issues with the unreliable handlers in American Samoa, the fuelers on Kiritimati had stopped responding to any phone calls or emails, so it wasn’t entirely clear how or if fuel would be available on arrival there despite having pre-paid for the barrels long in advance. Today, however, should be more straightforward; a five hour flight to Fiji. Despite being offensively overpriced in terms of handling and airport fees, the handling agents there were at least helpful and responsive so I was confident that all would go as planned.
Leaving the hotel at 0530, before sunrise, we met Marc at Magenta airport. He and Paola would be flying the Spirit of Noumea over to the main airport with us, to see us off. Marc handled the radios for us as a flight of two and we set off to La Tontouta International, parking up again in spot P65 to be met by the airport representative.
With Marc and his globe-trotting WT9 at Magenta
Amedee lighthouse
Mark and Paola at La Tontouta
The formalities outbound took a little longer than they had on the way in, but were still quick and efficient. Fees were extremely reasonable, which would be the last time I could say that until we arrived in Hawaii. Back out at the aircraft we said our final goodbyes, started up, and called for clearance.
ATC let us know that it would be a 15 minute wait for departure due to an incoming IFR airliner. I asked if we could instead depart VFR, and change to IFR en route; this was approved and we were given clearance for an immediate takeoff. In coordination with ATC we flew a wide circle out to the west of the airport to gain altitude, reaching 6,000ft over the LTO VOR before turning east across the mountains that make up the central spine of New Caledonia and continuing the climb up to 9,000ft.
Climbing out from La Tontouta
Mountains along the spine of New Caledonia
An A330 from the local airline, Air Calin, touched down beneath us as we passed back over the airport. This had been the IFR traffic which was on its way in as we departed. We settled in at 9,000ft, achieving a true airspeed of 140 knots as we cruised on out past the Loyalty Islands and were handed over to Nadi Radio on the HF. The forecast tailwind never turned up, and winds remained neutral for the entire five hour crossing.
Final views of New Caledonia
The route
100 miles out we started to pick up Nadi on the VHF, and said goodbye to the HF controller. We started a descent over a variety of tiny out-islands and reefs, being cleared for a visual approach to runway 02 over the Denarau Marine. Even from this altitude some of the yachts moored up here were astonishing in their luxury; they’d be even more impressive later that day when we saw them from ground level.
Approaching Fiji
Descending into Fiji
Denarau Marina, from left base to land at Nadi
The ground controller directed us to stand 13 at the main terminal and we parked up to be met by the friendly and efficient Davila and her handling team from Sunflower Aviation. The two young men assisting her were both pilots in training and were interested and excited to see a little Cessna 182 arriving internationally.
Nadi airport
Parked at Nadi
We refueled on arrival, the last time that we’d fuel from a truck (well, a trailer in this case) instead of barrels until Hawaii. We uploaded 470 liters; I had managed to identify a potential source of avgas in Independent Samoa with the help of the fantastic Stephen Death, and planned to load one barrel there. Carrying a little extra fuel out of Fiji would enable me to avoid buying a second of the very expensive Samoan barrels.
Passage through the airport with the assistance of the Sunflower team was quick and easy, and they even gave us a ride to the Denarau Marina. Juvy had arranged our accommodation on a little resort off the coast, set on its own small island. The catch was that the only access was by boat. It was a few hours until the evening boat was set to depart so we spent it at the shopping mall by the marina, starting off with a fantastic Indian meal for a late lunch.
Denarau Marina
The boat eventually left an hour late, and took us on the 30 minute ride across to Serenity Island. Resort staff had gathered to sing a welcome song as we were shuttled to the shore on a smaller vessel. After check-in I stayed in the lobby for a while longer to work on some planning for the next legs, and was treated to a display of traditional Fijian dance by some of the staff. After calling family at home in the UK to give them an update I headed off to bed, looking forward to a couple of days relaxing on Serenity Island.
Traditional dance on Serenity Island
Katamarino
Pattern Altitude
As I was finishing breakfast I noticed that the small shuttle boat was loading a few people up, and encouraging others to join them for a fish feeding excursion. I grabbed my breakfast Pina Colada and boarded. We cruised out a little way from shore and spent a while floating around, throwing scraps of leftover bread to the little fish hanging around the shallows.
Fish feeding on Serenity Island
Hanging out on Serenity Island
The rest of the morning was spent in a fairly lazy fashion, reading as well as working on plans for the next legs. In the afternoon we took a walk around the perimeter of the island, which didn’t take too long. We came across a few of the staff building a bonfire; they let us know that it would be lit that evening soon after sunset and invited us to come back and watch. After dinner that’s exactly what we did, drinks in hand.
Encountering a fierce native (oh wait, it's just Juvy)
We sat and chatted with other guests including a young Australian couple who had found a coconut. “How do you feel about science?” the guy asked me, and I of course answered positively. “Great”, he said, “we want to put this coconut on the fire and see what happens”.
Science on the beach
It was anticlimactic.
=================================
Dawn in Fiji
The next day was another quiet one, with a little process on the planning front. The landing permit for Kiritimati had been received from their Civil Aviation Authority (despite their AIP clearly stating that no permit was required; in many of these more lackadaisically run countries even the officially published information cannot be trusted), and they also sent through a “COVID Standard Operating Procedure” document detailing requirements for arrival.
Cabins
The document seemed to be very out of date. It asked for a collection of documents to be emailed to a government email address, which turned out to no longer exist. Another email address also listed in the document no longer existed either. Querying this with the contact at the CAA, he proclaimed that nobody had told him anything about the document being out of date, so as far as he was concerned it still needed to be complied with. Clearly the government agencies in Kiritimati were not run in a very competent fashion.
Fish feeding on Serenity Island
Hanging out on Serenity Island
The rest of the morning was spent in a fairly lazy fashion, reading as well as working on plans for the next legs. In the afternoon we took a walk around the perimeter of the island, which didn’t take too long. We came across a few of the staff building a bonfire; they let us know that it would be lit that evening soon after sunset and invited us to come back and watch. After dinner that’s exactly what we did, drinks in hand.
Encountering a fierce native (oh wait, it's just Juvy)
We sat and chatted with other guests including a young Australian couple who had found a coconut. “How do you feel about science?” the guy asked me, and I of course answered positively. “Great”, he said, “we want to put this coconut on the fire and see what happens”.
Science on the beach
It was anticlimactic.
=================================
Dawn in Fiji
The next day was another quiet one, with a little process on the planning front. The landing permit for Kiritimati had been received from their Civil Aviation Authority (despite their AIP clearly stating that no permit was required; in many of these more lackadaisically run countries even the officially published information cannot be trusted), and they also sent through a “COVID Standard Operating Procedure” document detailing requirements for arrival.
Cabins
The document seemed to be very out of date. It asked for a collection of documents to be emailed to a government email address, which turned out to no longer exist. Another email address also listed in the document no longer existed either. Querying this with the contact at the CAA, he proclaimed that nobody had told him anything about the document being out of date, so as far as he was concerned it still needed to be complied with. Clearly the government agencies in Kiritimati were not run in a very competent fashion.
Katamarino
Pattern Altitude
The next morning we were collected by a water taxi before dawn, as the hotel shuttle boat didn’t start running until later. The sun wasn’t around yet to warm things up, and the breeze was chilly as we sped across the small waves back to the main island. The dawn was breaking as we pulled back into the marina at Denarau after a thirty minute ride. After grabbing some pastries for breakfast we were soon in a taxi headed back to the airport.
Dawn on the ocean off Fiji
Luxury yachts in the marina
Captain and crew
Preparing for departure
Davila and team met us shortly after arrival and escorted us through immigration and customs back to the aircraft. After a thorough pre-flight we were ready to get going. It took a few minutes for air traffic control to get our clearance activated but we were soon given the go-ahead to taxi to point H. Tower cleared us to backtrack on runway 27, with an initial climb to 1,500ft on runway heading.
Climbing out from Nadi
Planey was a little sluggish with his heavy fuel load but the extra power of the upgraded engine had us in the air quickly and climbing out to the west of the airport before turning on course. Tower switched us to Nadi Control who re-cleared us up to 9,000ft on course. We climbed at 110kts true air speed, gaining just a few hundred feet a minute with the 170+ gallons of fuel on board.
In flight on the way to American Samoa
Early on in the flight we passed a major milestone; we crossed 180 degrees of longitude and returned to the Western Hemisphere. This put us exactly half way around the world from the UK; flying through there back in 2019 seemed like a lifetime ago. The initial light tailwind shifted around into a moderate headwind which slowed us down a little, but the comfortable fuel reserves which I had planned in meant that this was nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
The day's flight
One thinks of the Pacific as a vast empty expanse, but in this area at least nothing could be further from the truth. Tiny islands and atolls dotted the ocean, providing a welcome change of scenery as we cruised past them. A particularly impressive example was the ring-shaped Niuafo’ou island (translation; “Many coconuts”), part of the kingdom of Tonga. This volcanic island is a dramatic sight, with a flooded caldera on the interior with walls rising 120 meters above the water. The volcano is still active, with regular eruptions over the last 200 years. A little over 400 people live there, a number which has been slowly decreasing in recent decades.
Niuafo’ou atoll
Closer to American Samoa we passed another major milestone; the international date line. This meant that we took off on Tuesday, and landed on Monday. This was the first of three crossings we’d make of the date line, and a spreadsheet to keep track of arrival and departure days had been a key tool in making the correct accommodation reservations and handling requests!
We kept in touch with Nadi Radio on the HF as far as the “BODER” intersection, before switching over to talk to Faleolo approach out of independent Samoa. There were some large storm clouds sitting on the direct route between us and the airport at Pago Pago so we made a wide loop out to the south to get around them. We cancelled our IFR flight plan with Faleolo as we descended through 2,000ft before continuing in to land straight in to the northeast.
Approaching Pago Pago
Landing at Pago Pago
On the ground at Pago Pago
There had been no other traffic airborne around American Samoa but there was a little activity on the ground; a turboprop Aero-Commander and a local freight jet were moving around. A few individuals from Pritchard Airport Services met us on arrival including the owner himself. They took this opportunity to inform us that they had in fact found the Avgas after all (this turned out not to be entirely true). I did some quick re-planning and elected to accept one barrel of fuel, but to keep the new schedule with a stop in independent Samoa for another barrel. Transit through the little airport was very quick and simple and we were soon in a taxi on the way to the hotel; “Sadie’s by the Sea”.
Jason, the owner of Pritchard’s, had winced a little when we mentioned that we were staying at Sadie’s and the reasons for this became apparent fairly soon after our arrival there. It could charitably be described as “tired”, with poorly cleaned and maintained rooms and bags of trash laying around the hallway. Walls were thin, and the rooms were noisy. The advertised Wi-Fi didn’t seem to work at all, which was frustrating for flight planning. I was glad that we would be spending one night instead of the originally planned three and quickly changed our planned departure for the next day from 2pm to 11am. We quickly regrouped and headed to the restaurant which was significantly better, with decent internet access and simple but tasty food. They even made a good Pina Colada.
Sadie's by the Sea
The Sadie's courtesy van summed up the hotel nicely.
Dawn on the ocean off Fiji
Luxury yachts in the marina
Captain and crew
Preparing for departure
Davila and team met us shortly after arrival and escorted us through immigration and customs back to the aircraft. After a thorough pre-flight we were ready to get going. It took a few minutes for air traffic control to get our clearance activated but we were soon given the go-ahead to taxi to point H. Tower cleared us to backtrack on runway 27, with an initial climb to 1,500ft on runway heading.
Climbing out from Nadi
Planey was a little sluggish with his heavy fuel load but the extra power of the upgraded engine had us in the air quickly and climbing out to the west of the airport before turning on course. Tower switched us to Nadi Control who re-cleared us up to 9,000ft on course. We climbed at 110kts true air speed, gaining just a few hundred feet a minute with the 170+ gallons of fuel on board.
In flight on the way to American Samoa
Early on in the flight we passed a major milestone; we crossed 180 degrees of longitude and returned to the Western Hemisphere. This put us exactly half way around the world from the UK; flying through there back in 2019 seemed like a lifetime ago. The initial light tailwind shifted around into a moderate headwind which slowed us down a little, but the comfortable fuel reserves which I had planned in meant that this was nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
The day's flight
One thinks of the Pacific as a vast empty expanse, but in this area at least nothing could be further from the truth. Tiny islands and atolls dotted the ocean, providing a welcome change of scenery as we cruised past them. A particularly impressive example was the ring-shaped Niuafo’ou island (translation; “Many coconuts”), part of the kingdom of Tonga. This volcanic island is a dramatic sight, with a flooded caldera on the interior with walls rising 120 meters above the water. The volcano is still active, with regular eruptions over the last 200 years. A little over 400 people live there, a number which has been slowly decreasing in recent decades.
Niuafo’ou atoll
Closer to American Samoa we passed another major milestone; the international date line. This meant that we took off on Tuesday, and landed on Monday. This was the first of three crossings we’d make of the date line, and a spreadsheet to keep track of arrival and departure days had been a key tool in making the correct accommodation reservations and handling requests!
We kept in touch with Nadi Radio on the HF as far as the “BODER” intersection, before switching over to talk to Faleolo approach out of independent Samoa. There were some large storm clouds sitting on the direct route between us and the airport at Pago Pago so we made a wide loop out to the south to get around them. We cancelled our IFR flight plan with Faleolo as we descended through 2,000ft before continuing in to land straight in to the northeast.
Approaching Pago Pago
Landing at Pago Pago
On the ground at Pago Pago
There had been no other traffic airborne around American Samoa but there was a little activity on the ground; a turboprop Aero-Commander and a local freight jet were moving around. A few individuals from Pritchard Airport Services met us on arrival including the owner himself. They took this opportunity to inform us that they had in fact found the Avgas after all (this turned out not to be entirely true). I did some quick re-planning and elected to accept one barrel of fuel, but to keep the new schedule with a stop in independent Samoa for another barrel. Transit through the little airport was very quick and simple and we were soon in a taxi on the way to the hotel; “Sadie’s by the Sea”.
Jason, the owner of Pritchard’s, had winced a little when we mentioned that we were staying at Sadie’s and the reasons for this became apparent fairly soon after our arrival there. It could charitably be described as “tired”, with poorly cleaned and maintained rooms and bags of trash laying around the hallway. Walls were thin, and the rooms were noisy. The advertised Wi-Fi didn’t seem to work at all, which was frustrating for flight planning. I was glad that we would be spending one night instead of the originally planned three and quickly changed our planned departure for the next day from 2pm to 11am. We quickly regrouped and headed to the restaurant which was significantly better, with decent internet access and simple but tasty food. They even made a good Pina Colada.
Sadie's by the Sea
The Sadie's courtesy van summed up the hotel nicely.
Lindberg
Final Approach
I'm sorry you didn't get to spend more time in Pago Pago. It's an absolutely beautiful place little affected by modernity. At least it was 25 years ago.
Katamarino
Pattern Altitude
We only had to fly 80 miles today so there was no need to depart early. We still made an early exit from the hotel however, glad to see the back of it, and walked the thirty minutes to the visitor center for the American Samoa National Park. Along the way we passed the port and fishery, as well as a monument commemorating the deed of cession whereby American Samoa began the process of joining the United States in 1900. As we walked we were passed by an ever-increasing number of decorated pick-up trucks and other vehicles, most with people sitting in the back in formal clothing, and some with a young person on a makeshift throne. We later discovered that today was high school graduation day and that to arrive at graduation in such a fashion was a local tradition.
Morning at Sadie's
Buses on American Samoa
The harbour in American Samoa
Pago Way Service Station
The National Park Visitor Center is some distance from the park itself, presumably to make it more accessible. The only person there when we arrived was the ranger on duty who was very welcoming, giving us each an American Samoa 25c coin and answering all of our questions about the park and islands. Not long after us a couple, Tessa and Anthony, arrived; they were here to visit their final National Park. This was number 63 of 63.
National Park visitor center
The ranger was kind enough to call a taxi to take us back towards the airport once we had exhausted the exhibits in the visitor center. We had it drop us at the McDonald’s near the terminal; Juvy was keen to try out the American-Samoa-specific spam related breakfast items. To the amusement of the man behind the counter I made do with a McFlurry – “Oh ho, ice-cream for breakfast!”.
The walk from McDonald’s to the terminal was short and we were spotted by two of the Pritchard employees as we approached; they came and escorted us through the airport and out to the apron where they had a barrel of avgas on a trailer next to the airport. Promising. The drum was not sealed. Less promising. The drum was only half full. Oh dear.
After emptying the 18 gallons that was actually in the drum the Pritchard employees disappeared, claiming that they had another barrel somewhere. Time ticked on and we hung around waiting. The pilot of an Samoa Airways twin otter came over to say hello, curious about what a Cessna 182 was doing all the way out here. Tall, handsome and rugged, Juvy immediately dubbed him “Pilot Daddy”, although not out loud. He offered me plenty of good advice about flying over to Faleolo such as recommended altitudes and when to expect to achieve radio contact with the approach controller. After an hour the handlers finally returned and we uploaded the remainder of our fuel before starting up and heading on our way.
Waiting for fuel at Pago Pago
Fueling at Pago Pago
Chatting with "Pilot Daddy"
There is no air traffic control at Pago Pago so we self-announced as we taxied out and departed. I flew east along the shore gaining altitude before turning in along the inlet which houses Sadie’s by the Sea, having enough altitude now to clear the islands’ central hills. We shadowed the island’s north shore taking in the views of the National Park before turning a little to head towards the northern side of Samoa’s more easterly island.
The reef, on departure from Pago Pago
Pago Pago airport
Taking off from Pago Pago
Climbing out of Pago Pago
The day's flight
Half way between the islands we passed from Tuesday into Wednesday, the second date line crossing. As Pilot Daddy had said, it wasn’t until we were coming alongside the island that we managed to get in contact with the approach controller. Samoa Airways relayed a couple of messages for us before that. We cruised along the shoreline at 2,500ft, passing over the capital city of Apia before being cleared to land straight in on the airport’s only runway. Tower directed us to the apron where our handler, Sabu, was waiting to meet us.
First sight of Independent Samoa
Apia city
Final approach to Faleolo Intl
Welcome to Samoa
Sabu was efficient and organised and quickly led us into the main terminal where our passports were processed by a smiling Samoan lady who welcomed us to the country. This took just a few minutes, and Sabu then led us back to the aircraft and gave us directions for how to taxi to his hangar. A customs representative had followed us out to inspect the aircraft; after giving it a cursory glance he indicated that all was OK. I started up and called tower for clearance to enter the runway and head down to the hangars; despite there only being one hangar tower didn’t seem to understand where we wanted to go and had us hold until he had called our handler to figure things out.
Tower eventually gave us our taxi clearance and we headed down to park. I secured Planey under his cover, important given the amount of rain in this part of the world and his tendency to leak a little, and Sabu gave us a lift in his pick-up truck to the car rental agencies. Despite having a confirmed reservation the Budget people did not have any cars available for us but the lady behind the desk was eventually able to source one from an independent vendor, who would drop it off to us at the hotel that evening. In the meantime we took a taxi into the city and our hotel.
Parked up in Samoa
On the ride to the city
Traditional pavilion
This hotel was the complete opposite of Sadie’s; clean, comfortable and quiet. The internet connectivity was even excellent, although a check of my email confirmed that the fuelers on Kiritimati were continuing to maintain radio silence. After a couple of hours relaxing our rental car showed up and we took care of the paperwork which included the issuance of a Samoan driver licence; this simply involved the payment of some money and the copying of my UK licence details onto a sheet of paper.
We left the car at the hotel and walked to a well-reviewed local restaurant named “Paddles”. Owned by the son of an Italian immigrant and a local lady, their food was a mixture of the two cuisines and was delicious. A bonus was the fact that a friendly restaurant cat made the rounds greeting patrons from time to time. One unobservant arriving customer did stand on the cat which led to some yowling from both parties, but no permanent damage appeared to be done to either of them.
Morning at Sadie's
Buses on American Samoa
The harbour in American Samoa
Pago Way Service Station
The National Park Visitor Center is some distance from the park itself, presumably to make it more accessible. The only person there when we arrived was the ranger on duty who was very welcoming, giving us each an American Samoa 25c coin and answering all of our questions about the park and islands. Not long after us a couple, Tessa and Anthony, arrived; they were here to visit their final National Park. This was number 63 of 63.
National Park visitor center
The ranger was kind enough to call a taxi to take us back towards the airport once we had exhausted the exhibits in the visitor center. We had it drop us at the McDonald’s near the terminal; Juvy was keen to try out the American-Samoa-specific spam related breakfast items. To the amusement of the man behind the counter I made do with a McFlurry – “Oh ho, ice-cream for breakfast!”.
The walk from McDonald’s to the terminal was short and we were spotted by two of the Pritchard employees as we approached; they came and escorted us through the airport and out to the apron where they had a barrel of avgas on a trailer next to the airport. Promising. The drum was not sealed. Less promising. The drum was only half full. Oh dear.
After emptying the 18 gallons that was actually in the drum the Pritchard employees disappeared, claiming that they had another barrel somewhere. Time ticked on and we hung around waiting. The pilot of an Samoa Airways twin otter came over to say hello, curious about what a Cessna 182 was doing all the way out here. Tall, handsome and rugged, Juvy immediately dubbed him “Pilot Daddy”, although not out loud. He offered me plenty of good advice about flying over to Faleolo such as recommended altitudes and when to expect to achieve radio contact with the approach controller. After an hour the handlers finally returned and we uploaded the remainder of our fuel before starting up and heading on our way.
Waiting for fuel at Pago Pago
Fueling at Pago Pago
Chatting with "Pilot Daddy"
There is no air traffic control at Pago Pago so we self-announced as we taxied out and departed. I flew east along the shore gaining altitude before turning in along the inlet which houses Sadie’s by the Sea, having enough altitude now to clear the islands’ central hills. We shadowed the island’s north shore taking in the views of the National Park before turning a little to head towards the northern side of Samoa’s more easterly island.
The reef, on departure from Pago Pago
Pago Pago airport
Taking off from Pago Pago
Climbing out of Pago Pago
The day's flight
Half way between the islands we passed from Tuesday into Wednesday, the second date line crossing. As Pilot Daddy had said, it wasn’t until we were coming alongside the island that we managed to get in contact with the approach controller. Samoa Airways relayed a couple of messages for us before that. We cruised along the shoreline at 2,500ft, passing over the capital city of Apia before being cleared to land straight in on the airport’s only runway. Tower directed us to the apron where our handler, Sabu, was waiting to meet us.
First sight of Independent Samoa
Apia city
Final approach to Faleolo Intl
Welcome to Samoa
Sabu was efficient and organised and quickly led us into the main terminal where our passports were processed by a smiling Samoan lady who welcomed us to the country. This took just a few minutes, and Sabu then led us back to the aircraft and gave us directions for how to taxi to his hangar. A customs representative had followed us out to inspect the aircraft; after giving it a cursory glance he indicated that all was OK. I started up and called tower for clearance to enter the runway and head down to the hangars; despite there only being one hangar tower didn’t seem to understand where we wanted to go and had us hold until he had called our handler to figure things out.
Tower eventually gave us our taxi clearance and we headed down to park. I secured Planey under his cover, important given the amount of rain in this part of the world and his tendency to leak a little, and Sabu gave us a lift in his pick-up truck to the car rental agencies. Despite having a confirmed reservation the Budget people did not have any cars available for us but the lady behind the desk was eventually able to source one from an independent vendor, who would drop it off to us at the hotel that evening. In the meantime we took a taxi into the city and our hotel.
Parked up in Samoa
On the ride to the city
Traditional pavilion
This hotel was the complete opposite of Sadie’s; clean, comfortable and quiet. The internet connectivity was even excellent, although a check of my email confirmed that the fuelers on Kiritimati were continuing to maintain radio silence. After a couple of hours relaxing our rental car showed up and we took care of the paperwork which included the issuance of a Samoan driver licence; this simply involved the payment of some money and the copying of my UK licence details onto a sheet of paper.
We left the car at the hotel and walked to a well-reviewed local restaurant named “Paddles”. Owned by the son of an Italian immigrant and a local lady, their food was a mixture of the two cuisines and was delicious. A bonus was the fact that a friendly restaurant cat made the rounds greeting patrons from time to time. One unobservant arriving customer did stand on the cat which led to some yowling from both parties, but no permanent damage appeared to be done to either of them.
Katamarino
Pattern Altitude
I met Sabu the next morning at the airport to refuel Planey. We obtained a temporary security pass for me and drove up to Sabu’s hangar where a handful of new, sealed drums of avgas were stored. We rolled one of them out to Planey and unpacked the electric transfer pump. It was a good thing that we hadn’t tried to refuel on departure as Sabu had originally suggested because it took a good thirty minutes to get the pump working and transfer the fuel.
Preparing to refuel
An old Samoa Air Cessna
Sabu dropped me back at the terminal where I had left the rental car, and said his goodbyes. Juvy and I headed off to explore the island, stopping first at the hospital to acquire COVID tests as required by the probably-out-of-date Kiritimati arrival procedures. There was a slight delay because the office where the COVID tests were done was locked and none of the medical staff had the key; when we arrived they were attempting to open the door using a spoon. 20 minutes later we left with negative tests in hand, as the doctor strolled out behind us, swung his leg over a sports bike, and roared off.
The street outside the hospital
Samoan coastline
Samoa's coolest truck
We drove east of the city along the coast, stopping every now and then to take in the views, as well as some photographs. Occasional rain showers rolled through and the mountains at our backs were shrouded in mist. Every now and then we came across children swimming or surfing by the shore.
A short distance along the road we arrived at the Piula Cave Pool. Located within the grounds of the Piula Theological College this pool is formed by a freshwater spring that flows out of a large cave. The pool is connected to the sea below the water level and rises and falls with the tide; this also means that some marine life can come and go. A Samoan family, now living in New Zealand, were trying to coax out a large eel which was ensconced under rocks at one end.
Piula Cave Pool
View from Piula Cave Pool
After drying off and enjoying the views along the shore we hopped back into the car and headed uphill into the interior. The road took us past handfuls of small homes, many with colourful lines of clothes hanging drying outside. We slowly wound our way along the road up into the mountains, soon being surrounded by mist as well as the occasional curious cow gazing at us from the side of the road as we passed.
Local home
Cows in the hills of Samoa
Interior Samoa
Samoa’s interior is abundant with waterfalls, fed by the rainy climate and funneled by the dramatic hills and valleys. We stopped to view a couple of these, the most impressive of which was the Sopoaga waterfall. 32m high, this fall is surrounded by lush rainforest, making it particularly picturesque.
Chickens at the Sopoaga Waterfall overview
Sopoaga Waterfall
Preparing to refuel
An old Samoa Air Cessna
Sabu dropped me back at the terminal where I had left the rental car, and said his goodbyes. Juvy and I headed off to explore the island, stopping first at the hospital to acquire COVID tests as required by the probably-out-of-date Kiritimati arrival procedures. There was a slight delay because the office where the COVID tests were done was locked and none of the medical staff had the key; when we arrived they were attempting to open the door using a spoon. 20 minutes later we left with negative tests in hand, as the doctor strolled out behind us, swung his leg over a sports bike, and roared off.
The street outside the hospital
Samoan coastline
Samoa's coolest truck
We drove east of the city along the coast, stopping every now and then to take in the views, as well as some photographs. Occasional rain showers rolled through and the mountains at our backs were shrouded in mist. Every now and then we came across children swimming or surfing by the shore.
A short distance along the road we arrived at the Piula Cave Pool. Located within the grounds of the Piula Theological College this pool is formed by a freshwater spring that flows out of a large cave. The pool is connected to the sea below the water level and rises and falls with the tide; this also means that some marine life can come and go. A Samoan family, now living in New Zealand, were trying to coax out a large eel which was ensconced under rocks at one end.
Piula Cave Pool
View from Piula Cave Pool
After drying off and enjoying the views along the shore we hopped back into the car and headed uphill into the interior. The road took us past handfuls of small homes, many with colourful lines of clothes hanging drying outside. We slowly wound our way along the road up into the mountains, soon being surrounded by mist as well as the occasional curious cow gazing at us from the side of the road as we passed.
Local home
Cows in the hills of Samoa
Interior Samoa
Samoa’s interior is abundant with waterfalls, fed by the rainy climate and funneled by the dramatic hills and valleys. We stopped to view a couple of these, the most impressive of which was the Sopoaga waterfall. 32m high, this fall is surrounded by lush rainforest, making it particularly picturesque.
Chickens at the Sopoaga Waterfall overview
Sopoaga Waterfall
Katamarino
Pattern Altitude
Rain pounded on the roof of the hotel on and off throughout the night, disturbing my rest. We were due to be taking off before dawn, and doing so into rain and cloud is never enjoyable; indeed it’s usually best not to fly in such conditions, and so I was worried that we might be looking at a delay. My alarm went off at 0305am and I rolled out of bed and dressed. Leaving the hotel at 0320, the roads were deserted, but before long a surprising number of vehicles had appeared. Things get going early in Samoa. There was light drizzle as we drove, but the weather did seem to be improving in line with the forecast.
Early morning at the airport
Sabu took us through immigration, which was already open for a departing Fiji Airways flight, and then we headed to customs. Things here were rather less active and we had to hammer on the door of the arrivals section for a while before a customs officer appeared and took care of the paperwork. Sabu then drove us out to a very wet Planey and I preflighted as Sabu helped out by holding a torch. I called for clearance before starting the engine and, unfortunately, found that the flight plan had not been received. Further inquiries revealed that the computer which receives the plans was in a locked office, and the man with the key had not arrived yet! After a few phone calls and an email to a different address the flight plan was filed and we were given our clearance.
Pre-flighting in Samoa
The Fiji Airways jet zoomed past in front of us as we sat at the hold short line, departing on runway 26. The wind was calm and we were instructed to line up the reciprocal, runway 08. After a moment’s delay while the final flight plan processing went through we were cleared to depart straight ahead, climbing to 1,000ft before turning on course to the northwest. I pushed in the throttle and we lumbered off down the runway to begin our 1,521 mile flight to Kiritimati Island. The “easy” flights were done – we were on to the long ones now.
Departure from Samoa
Dawn breaks on the climb out from Samoa
With the blessing of air traffic control I turned left early; we were climbing slowly, and hills loomed ahead on runway heading. We wallowed our way up to 7,000ft and leveled off there, passing in and out of the cloud tops. Faleolo approach switched us over to the HF radio pretty early, and contact with them was excellent in our radio check. By the time we reached our first waypoint however we couldn’t raise them at all. There were no pre-defined intersections or waypoints along our route, so we had filed the flight plan by defining our own waypoints using latitudes and longitudes.
Dawn, north of Samoa
As we settled into the cruise there was a 15kt headwind; this grew to almost 30kt over the next few hours. We used the Garmin InReach to communicate with my pilot friend Joachim who checked the latest weather reports and responded that there weren’t really any better altitudes. We resolved just to put up with the slow speeds; there weren’t a lot of other options! At our waypoint passing 8 degrees south we managed to make contact with Faleolo over the HF to report our progress, and they passed us over to San Francisco Radio. We were unable to manage any contact with them so cruised along our way, trying to raise them every now and then, eventually managing to talk to them and report that all was normal. It was amazing to me that we were in radio contact with San Francisco, even if it was probably via a closer base station, from our little cockpit over the South Pacific.
Calm weather over the Pacific
Thirty minutes later we heard from Joachim again; wind speeds looked better down at 2,000ft. I was dubious that this would help us, given the poorer efficiency we’d get from flying in the thicker air down there, but we decided to try it out anyway. As suspected, it was no good; the headwind was 10kts lower, but our true airspeed was also 10kts lower and we were burning more fuel. We did see a boat, at least, before climbing back up to 8,000ft.
Monitoring the HF we overheard San Francisco Radio talking with a coastguard aircraft in the vicinity of Tahiti. The aircraft reported that they had located a shipwreck survivor in the water and were commencing a rescue. This was reassuring – even if we went down out here, rescue was not impossible!
Radio contact with San Francisco became a bit more reliable as we went on, although HF quality seems to be more affected by atmospheric conditions than it is by distance. As we drew closer to Kiritimati, San Francisco called us up to relay a message. Apparently Kiritimati were asking if we’d need fuel. I responded and made it quite clear that fuel had been pre-paid months ago and that we’d been contacting them repeatedly over the past few weeks to try and get some confirmation that they were ready. We could hear San Francisco relaying this message to Kiritimati by HF, although couldn’t hear the replies.
Our flight route
Just south of Kiritimati we passed another major milestone; the equator. Juvy had been with me nearly four years earlier when we passed it the other way over Indonesia, and it was nice to celebrate together once again. Soon afterwards we established VHF contact with Kiritimati and reported as much to San Francisco. They cleared us to descend at our own discretion down to 5,500ft, with a subsequent cruise clearance from 5,500ft. This basically means that you can descend as you wish, but can’t climb back up.
Crossing the equator northbound
The island came into view under the cloud as we descended. The terrain was quite unusual; the island is very low lying and mostly made up of coral rises and shallow lagoons tied together by palms and other vegetation. Part of the island nation of Kiribati, Kiritimati is not a place which most of the world would ever hear about; indeed, I don’t think I’d heard of it until I developed an interest in world flights. The island has a population of about 7,500 people and severely limited infrastructure. This had meant that Kiritimati had been by far the last place to open its borders in the wake of the COVID pandemic.
Coasting in over Kiritimati
Kiritimati
Kiritimati lagoons
Kiritimati lagoons
The control tower cleared us to land straight in, and to taxi in to the terminal apron. We parked up in the corner and shut down, having closed our flight plan with San Francisco over the HF on the ground. There was only one man around, from customs; still no word from K-Oil, the fuelers, or from the lodge about collecting us. However, within the next few minutes everybody turned up! Immigration arrived to check us into the country, the hotel owner showed up to give us a ride back, and two men from K-Oil even arrived in a truck with two barrels of avgas in the back. It’s rare, but sometimes things just work out better than expected.
Preparing to refuel on Kiritimati
Refueling at Kiritimati
Refueling was efficient, if not quick, and we filled all four wing tanks before putting the remainder into the ferry tank in the cabin. The pump leaked quite badly but the fuelers had a clean stainless steel bucket which they used to catch the leaking fuel, allowing us to put it into the tanks instead of wasting it. My filter funnel came in handy here both for making this process easier, and for giving us an extra level of confidence that the fuel was uncontaminated.
Welcome to Kiritimati
Kiritimati airport
Kiritimati airport apron
The sun was setting as we rode in the back of the “Lagoon View” fishing lodge’s Toyota and headed for the lodge. Dinner was being served as we arrived; tuna, rice and vegetables. We met the other guests; four American fishermen who had booked their trip before COVID and been waiting ever since, an American yachtsman who’d flown in to see if it was a good destination to sail to (and had decided “no”), and three American Christian missionaries.The food, like the rooms, was simple but satisfactory. We turned in early, ready for a couple of days of rest before striking out north once again. The only downside was a lack of hot water but given the regular water shortages on the island, we were happy to be able to shower at all!
My room on Kiritimati
Early morning at the airport
Sabu took us through immigration, which was already open for a departing Fiji Airways flight, and then we headed to customs. Things here were rather less active and we had to hammer on the door of the arrivals section for a while before a customs officer appeared and took care of the paperwork. Sabu then drove us out to a very wet Planey and I preflighted as Sabu helped out by holding a torch. I called for clearance before starting the engine and, unfortunately, found that the flight plan had not been received. Further inquiries revealed that the computer which receives the plans was in a locked office, and the man with the key had not arrived yet! After a few phone calls and an email to a different address the flight plan was filed and we were given our clearance.
Pre-flighting in Samoa
The Fiji Airways jet zoomed past in front of us as we sat at the hold short line, departing on runway 26. The wind was calm and we were instructed to line up the reciprocal, runway 08. After a moment’s delay while the final flight plan processing went through we were cleared to depart straight ahead, climbing to 1,000ft before turning on course to the northwest. I pushed in the throttle and we lumbered off down the runway to begin our 1,521 mile flight to Kiritimati Island. The “easy” flights were done – we were on to the long ones now.
Departure from Samoa
Dawn breaks on the climb out from Samoa
With the blessing of air traffic control I turned left early; we were climbing slowly, and hills loomed ahead on runway heading. We wallowed our way up to 7,000ft and leveled off there, passing in and out of the cloud tops. Faleolo approach switched us over to the HF radio pretty early, and contact with them was excellent in our radio check. By the time we reached our first waypoint however we couldn’t raise them at all. There were no pre-defined intersections or waypoints along our route, so we had filed the flight plan by defining our own waypoints using latitudes and longitudes.
Dawn, north of Samoa
As we settled into the cruise there was a 15kt headwind; this grew to almost 30kt over the next few hours. We used the Garmin InReach to communicate with my pilot friend Joachim who checked the latest weather reports and responded that there weren’t really any better altitudes. We resolved just to put up with the slow speeds; there weren’t a lot of other options! At our waypoint passing 8 degrees south we managed to make contact with Faleolo over the HF to report our progress, and they passed us over to San Francisco Radio. We were unable to manage any contact with them so cruised along our way, trying to raise them every now and then, eventually managing to talk to them and report that all was normal. It was amazing to me that we were in radio contact with San Francisco, even if it was probably via a closer base station, from our little cockpit over the South Pacific.
Calm weather over the Pacific
Thirty minutes later we heard from Joachim again; wind speeds looked better down at 2,000ft. I was dubious that this would help us, given the poorer efficiency we’d get from flying in the thicker air down there, but we decided to try it out anyway. As suspected, it was no good; the headwind was 10kts lower, but our true airspeed was also 10kts lower and we were burning more fuel. We did see a boat, at least, before climbing back up to 8,000ft.
Monitoring the HF we overheard San Francisco Radio talking with a coastguard aircraft in the vicinity of Tahiti. The aircraft reported that they had located a shipwreck survivor in the water and were commencing a rescue. This was reassuring – even if we went down out here, rescue was not impossible!
Radio contact with San Francisco became a bit more reliable as we went on, although HF quality seems to be more affected by atmospheric conditions than it is by distance. As we drew closer to Kiritimati, San Francisco called us up to relay a message. Apparently Kiritimati were asking if we’d need fuel. I responded and made it quite clear that fuel had been pre-paid months ago and that we’d been contacting them repeatedly over the past few weeks to try and get some confirmation that they were ready. We could hear San Francisco relaying this message to Kiritimati by HF, although couldn’t hear the replies.
Our flight route
Just south of Kiritimati we passed another major milestone; the equator. Juvy had been with me nearly four years earlier when we passed it the other way over Indonesia, and it was nice to celebrate together once again. Soon afterwards we established VHF contact with Kiritimati and reported as much to San Francisco. They cleared us to descend at our own discretion down to 5,500ft, with a subsequent cruise clearance from 5,500ft. This basically means that you can descend as you wish, but can’t climb back up.
Crossing the equator northbound
The island came into view under the cloud as we descended. The terrain was quite unusual; the island is very low lying and mostly made up of coral rises and shallow lagoons tied together by palms and other vegetation. Part of the island nation of Kiribati, Kiritimati is not a place which most of the world would ever hear about; indeed, I don’t think I’d heard of it until I developed an interest in world flights. The island has a population of about 7,500 people and severely limited infrastructure. This had meant that Kiritimati had been by far the last place to open its borders in the wake of the COVID pandemic.
Coasting in over Kiritimati
Kiritimati
Kiritimati lagoons
Kiritimati lagoons
The control tower cleared us to land straight in, and to taxi in to the terminal apron. We parked up in the corner and shut down, having closed our flight plan with San Francisco over the HF on the ground. There was only one man around, from customs; still no word from K-Oil, the fuelers, or from the lodge about collecting us. However, within the next few minutes everybody turned up! Immigration arrived to check us into the country, the hotel owner showed up to give us a ride back, and two men from K-Oil even arrived in a truck with two barrels of avgas in the back. It’s rare, but sometimes things just work out better than expected.
Preparing to refuel on Kiritimati
Refueling at Kiritimati
Refueling was efficient, if not quick, and we filled all four wing tanks before putting the remainder into the ferry tank in the cabin. The pump leaked quite badly but the fuelers had a clean stainless steel bucket which they used to catch the leaking fuel, allowing us to put it into the tanks instead of wasting it. My filter funnel came in handy here both for making this process easier, and for giving us an extra level of confidence that the fuel was uncontaminated.
Welcome to Kiritimati
Kiritimati airport
Kiritimati airport apron
The sun was setting as we rode in the back of the “Lagoon View” fishing lodge’s Toyota and headed for the lodge. Dinner was being served as we arrived; tuna, rice and vegetables. We met the other guests; four American fishermen who had booked their trip before COVID and been waiting ever since, an American yachtsman who’d flown in to see if it was a good destination to sail to (and had decided “no”), and three American Christian missionaries.The food, like the rooms, was simple but satisfactory. We turned in early, ready for a couple of days of rest before striking out north once again. The only downside was a lack of hot water but given the regular water shortages on the island, we were happy to be able to shower at all!
My room on Kiritimati
Plano Pilot
Line Up and Wait
I have been waiting for your Kiritimati write up. 6 months after I had graduated high school in 1980, I spent a night there in the Capitan Cook Hotel. A friend of my dad had a Lockheed Lodestar that had been modified into a Learstar II. Dad talked his friend into letting me ride along on a trip and our first stop out of Honolulu was Kiritimati. If I remember right it took us 6 hours to fly there and 6 hours for the ground crew to hand pump around 600 gallons into the plane. It had a Loran but only worked for a few hundred miles out of PHNL. The rest was DR until we picked up the NDB on Kiritimati. Quite a trip for an 18-year-old kid.
Thanks for the write up.
Thanks for the write up.
jbDC9
Pre-takeoff checklist
Great trip report and fantastic pics!
Oh? Do tell…
Katamarino
Pattern Altitude
As soon as I finish the write-up here, I'll start a new thread!
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Display name:
MountainDude
"the flight plan had not been received. Further inquiries revealed that the computer which receives the plans was in a locked office, and the man with the key had not arrived yet!"
Unbelievable. Sorry.
Unbelievable. Sorry.
What's left other than Antarctica or the Moon?
Randomskylane
Line Up and Wait
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Display name:
Randomskylane
Definitely, I’m ready to sell the house and start my own trip…
Katamarino
Pattern Altitude
I slept late the next morning. At about 11am we decided to set off on the hour’s walk into the nearest town. The daughter of the lodge’s owner had offered a loan of a motorbike but having never ridden one I decided now was probably not the time to try and learn, particularly given the very limited medical facilities on the island. So off we walked, a couple of idiot tourists in the mid-day sun.
Back gate of the lodge
The beach behind the lodge, overlooking the lagoon
Local license plates are made of wood
One of the things I like about Kiritmati is the naming. The name of the island itself, in spite of being spelled in the local manner, is derived from the English name Christmas Island (Kiritimati is pronounced “Kiritimass”) When you look at the island on Google Maps the main towns are shown as Tabwakea, London, Paris (now abandoned), Poland, and Banana (Banana is where the airport is). It was London that we were making our way towards.
A local store
A local school
Bus stop
As we walked we passed a number of foreign-supported development projects; schools and infrastructure primarily. Australia and New Zealand were well represented, as was Japan who maintain a space mission tracking station on the north side of the atoll. Kiritimati is the largest atoll in the world (an atoll is a ring shaped island encircling a lagoon) and makes up over 70% of the total land area of the Kiribati nation, which is composed of 33 islands in total. Kiritimati is really not very big, underscoring how small the rest of the nation’s islands, including the capital island, must be!
Energy infrastructure signage on Kiritimati
A nod to the island's main tourist industry
Kiritimati was initially inhabited intermittently by Polynesian people although the archaeological record suggests it was never permanently settled, before being claimed by the United States in the 1850s. They didn’t do much of anything with it until the 1880s when external settlement began, supporting coconut plantations and fishing. By the 1900s the British were in control, and in 1902 granted a 99 year lease to Levers Pacific Plantations who planted 72,863 coconut palms on the island and introduced oysters into the lagoon. Extreme drought quickly killed 75% of the palms, and the island was abandoned again by 1905.
Decoration
Most of the atoll’s interesting names were given by Father Emmanuel Rougier, a French priest who leased the island from 1917 and ultimately planted over 500,000 coconut palms. He lived, of course, in Paris, just south of London at the mouth of the lagoon. He named the settlement of Poland in honour of his Polish plantation manager, who lived there.
A rusting building
Kiritimati was occupied by the Allies in World War II with the U.S. in control of the island garrison. The atoll was important to hold, since Japanese occupation would allow interdiction of the Hawaii-to-Australia supply route. For the first few months there were next to no recreational facilities on the island, and the men amused themselves by shooting sharks in the lagoon. The island’s first airstrip was constructed at this time to supply the Air Force weather station and communications center. The airstrip also provided rest and refueling facilities for planes travelling between Hawaii and the South Pacific. The 1947 census listed only 47 inhabitants on the island.
Children playing in the shade
In the 1950s and 1960s the UK and USA used the island for nuclear testing. Islanders were usually not evacuated during the nuclear weapons testing, and data on the environmental and public health impact of these tests remains contested.
The island is covered in crabs
We wandered through London and came to the mouth of the lagoon. Numerous large ships were visible moored off the end of the atoll. These were motherships for the fishing fleets that ply these waters; smaller vessels head out fishing and then return to the motherships for unloading and resupply. A smaller fishing operation was underway at the little jetty we came to; two gentlemen were strapping a large headless tuna to the back of a motorbike. We chatted to them, and learned that one of them had lost a fight with a fish the day before and was on shore rest for now, hence helping his friend out with the fish transport.
Fishing mother ships
The tuna
The tuna heads off to its' future
These days the population of Kiritimati has soared to more than 7,000, since it became part of the Kiribati nation. The vast majority of the island’s supplies are imported, through a large modern jetty in London built by the Japanese. Fish make up much of the population’s diet although overfishing has seen fish stocks plummet in recent years. The main exports from Kiritimati are coconut products, aquarium fish, and seaweed.
A lagoon in London
We returned to the fishing lodge along the same road that we’d come into London on. Not far into the walk a truck pulled up next to us and offered us a ride. We gladly accepted, anything to minimise our remaining time in the blazing sun; Kiritimati is less than 150 miles north of the equator. We clambered into the back of the truck and were soon dropped off at the lodge.
Kiritimati lagoon
One of the island's churches
At dinner that evening we were all asked to sign the guest book, and enjoyed leafing through it to learn a bit about previous visitors. I was most intrigued by the mysterious and rugged-sounding “DEAN DAGGER” from Hawaii, who had signed his name in all-capital letters but otherwise left no clues. Why were you here, Dean? What did you see?
The dining room
Map of the island in the dining room
That night I spent a couple of hours battling the glacially slow internet to file my “EAPIS” notice of arrival into the United States for the upcoming flight to Hawaii. Connections were so slow that I had Joachim look up the EAPIS FAQs section for me, and see if they had an answer for what to do if you were departing towards the US from somewhere with no internet access. They did; US Customs and Border Protection’s answer for this situation was “Fly somewhere else first, that does have internet access, and then fly to the USA from there”. A classic example of a lazy and incompetent bureaucracy not bothering to consider the cases in which their system isn’t fit for purpose.
Back gate of the lodge
The beach behind the lodge, overlooking the lagoon
Local license plates are made of wood
One of the things I like about Kiritmati is the naming. The name of the island itself, in spite of being spelled in the local manner, is derived from the English name Christmas Island (Kiritimati is pronounced “Kiritimass”) When you look at the island on Google Maps the main towns are shown as Tabwakea, London, Paris (now abandoned), Poland, and Banana (Banana is where the airport is). It was London that we were making our way towards.
A local store
A local school
Bus stop
As we walked we passed a number of foreign-supported development projects; schools and infrastructure primarily. Australia and New Zealand were well represented, as was Japan who maintain a space mission tracking station on the north side of the atoll. Kiritimati is the largest atoll in the world (an atoll is a ring shaped island encircling a lagoon) and makes up over 70% of the total land area of the Kiribati nation, which is composed of 33 islands in total. Kiritimati is really not very big, underscoring how small the rest of the nation’s islands, including the capital island, must be!
Energy infrastructure signage on Kiritimati
A nod to the island's main tourist industry
Kiritimati was initially inhabited intermittently by Polynesian people although the archaeological record suggests it was never permanently settled, before being claimed by the United States in the 1850s. They didn’t do much of anything with it until the 1880s when external settlement began, supporting coconut plantations and fishing. By the 1900s the British were in control, and in 1902 granted a 99 year lease to Levers Pacific Plantations who planted 72,863 coconut palms on the island and introduced oysters into the lagoon. Extreme drought quickly killed 75% of the palms, and the island was abandoned again by 1905.
Decoration
Most of the atoll’s interesting names were given by Father Emmanuel Rougier, a French priest who leased the island from 1917 and ultimately planted over 500,000 coconut palms. He lived, of course, in Paris, just south of London at the mouth of the lagoon. He named the settlement of Poland in honour of his Polish plantation manager, who lived there.
A rusting building
Kiritimati was occupied by the Allies in World War II with the U.S. in control of the island garrison. The atoll was important to hold, since Japanese occupation would allow interdiction of the Hawaii-to-Australia supply route. For the first few months there were next to no recreational facilities on the island, and the men amused themselves by shooting sharks in the lagoon. The island’s first airstrip was constructed at this time to supply the Air Force weather station and communications center. The airstrip also provided rest and refueling facilities for planes travelling between Hawaii and the South Pacific. The 1947 census listed only 47 inhabitants on the island.
Children playing in the shade
In the 1950s and 1960s the UK and USA used the island for nuclear testing. Islanders were usually not evacuated during the nuclear weapons testing, and data on the environmental and public health impact of these tests remains contested.
The island is covered in crabs
We wandered through London and came to the mouth of the lagoon. Numerous large ships were visible moored off the end of the atoll. These were motherships for the fishing fleets that ply these waters; smaller vessels head out fishing and then return to the motherships for unloading and resupply. A smaller fishing operation was underway at the little jetty we came to; two gentlemen were strapping a large headless tuna to the back of a motorbike. We chatted to them, and learned that one of them had lost a fight with a fish the day before and was on shore rest for now, hence helping his friend out with the fish transport.
Fishing mother ships
The tuna
The tuna heads off to its' future
These days the population of Kiritimati has soared to more than 7,000, since it became part of the Kiribati nation. The vast majority of the island’s supplies are imported, through a large modern jetty in London built by the Japanese. Fish make up much of the population’s diet although overfishing has seen fish stocks plummet in recent years. The main exports from Kiritimati are coconut products, aquarium fish, and seaweed.
A lagoon in London
We returned to the fishing lodge along the same road that we’d come into London on. Not far into the walk a truck pulled up next to us and offered us a ride. We gladly accepted, anything to minimise our remaining time in the blazing sun; Kiritimati is less than 150 miles north of the equator. We clambered into the back of the truck and were soon dropped off at the lodge.
Kiritimati lagoon
One of the island's churches
At dinner that evening we were all asked to sign the guest book, and enjoyed leafing through it to learn a bit about previous visitors. I was most intrigued by the mysterious and rugged-sounding “DEAN DAGGER” from Hawaii, who had signed his name in all-capital letters but otherwise left no clues. Why were you here, Dean? What did you see?
The dining room
Map of the island in the dining room
That night I spent a couple of hours battling the glacially slow internet to file my “EAPIS” notice of arrival into the United States for the upcoming flight to Hawaii. Connections were so slow that I had Joachim look up the EAPIS FAQs section for me, and see if they had an answer for what to do if you were departing towards the US from somewhere with no internet access. They did; US Customs and Border Protection’s answer for this situation was “Fly somewhere else first, that does have internet access, and then fly to the USA from there”. A classic example of a lazy and incompetent bureaucracy not bothering to consider the cases in which their system isn’t fit for purpose.
Katamarino
Pattern Altitude
First thing in the morning I borrowed Juvy’s phone, the only one working here, and called Customs and Border Protection in Hawaii to confirm our arrival for the following day. They acknowledged and said they’d be waiting (spoiler alert – they weren’t). Next I called flight service in the US and filed our flight plan; the briefer said it was their first time entering a plan out of Kiritimati!
After exploring on land the previous day, today we were heading out on a boat trip led by the fishing guide, Matt, who had been organising the activities for our four American friends at the lodge. He had sent them with other guides for the day and arranged a small boat and captain to take us around the lagoons. He turned up after breakfast and collected us, driving us down to the small marina area where we’d seen the arrival of the tuna the previous day. As we pulled up our captain arrived, and he and Matt went off to the petrol station to get some fuel.
Our boat approaches
Matt and his wife
With the boat fueled up we set out across the lagoon. Matt stood up front on the bow keeping a sharp eye on the waters and directing the captain through the shallows. “It’s like a road” he said, “you have to know the way or you get lost”. Perhaps not the best example on an island that effectively only has one road, but he got his point across. Matt’s wife was with us, on her first boat outing with him; she’d never had the chance to come out with him before and was excited to see new parts of the island. We cruised all the way to the eastern extent of the waters to a location known as “Y site” – all the flats and pools have names to help the fishermen talk about their plans and exploits.
Matt scans the water to direct our captain
The entirety of Kiritimati is designated as a wildlife sanctuary, and is primarily populated by birds. 35 species have been recorded here, the vast majority being seabirds although three species of land birds are also present. Kiritimati is the most important breeding ground in the world for several species of seabird and many areas of the island are off-limits to avoid disturbing the bird population. Our first stop was to see a selection of these nesting seabirds.
Arriving to view seabirds
Beached on the edge of the lagoon
Seabirds in the more remote areas of the reserve
Nesting seabirds
A variety of land animals are also present on Kiritimati, most of them imported. Rats were already present as early as 1777, probably brought by earlier seafarers, and goats were introduced more recently in 2004. About 2,000 feral cats exist on the island, causing great damage to the bird population and planning is underway to control these predators. Feral pigs exist, mostly kept under control by hunting for food, and a few species of lizards appear to have made their own way to the island. Matt informed us that dogs are strictly controlled, with only male dogs being permitted on the island to avoid breeding. Rounding out the animal population is a large and ubiquitous number of crabs.
Matt directed the boat back to the west across the lagoons, to the abandoned settlement of Paris. As we approached the beach we encountered a man snorkeling just off the beach, gathering sea worms. Our captain beached the vessel on the brilliant white sand and we wandered around a little on the shore before boarding again and heading back to London. Matt drove us back to the lodge, and his wife admitted that a day out on the lagoon in the sun made her believe him a bit more when he claimed to be tired after a day’s work – she had thought he was just out lazing in the lovely weather!
Approaching Paris
The beach at Paris
Fishing "mother ship"
Sea traffic on our way back to port
That evening I received an email from Mary, the airport manager, making sure that we would be paying our airport fees before departure the next morning. Although not as bad as K-Oil, she had ignored many of the messages I had sent to her asking for information. When it came to taking money however she was entirely on top of things, replying almost instantly to my clarifying questions about amounts and methods of payment. They would only accept cash in Australian dollars (the national currency) so we made a late night trip to the island’s only ATM to stock up. After another great dinner we turned in for an early night. Once again, we’d be up well before dawn to depart Kiritimati.
Front gates of the lodge
Evening at the lodge
After exploring on land the previous day, today we were heading out on a boat trip led by the fishing guide, Matt, who had been organising the activities for our four American friends at the lodge. He had sent them with other guides for the day and arranged a small boat and captain to take us around the lagoons. He turned up after breakfast and collected us, driving us down to the small marina area where we’d seen the arrival of the tuna the previous day. As we pulled up our captain arrived, and he and Matt went off to the petrol station to get some fuel.
Our boat approaches
Matt and his wife
With the boat fueled up we set out across the lagoon. Matt stood up front on the bow keeping a sharp eye on the waters and directing the captain through the shallows. “It’s like a road” he said, “you have to know the way or you get lost”. Perhaps not the best example on an island that effectively only has one road, but he got his point across. Matt’s wife was with us, on her first boat outing with him; she’d never had the chance to come out with him before and was excited to see new parts of the island. We cruised all the way to the eastern extent of the waters to a location known as “Y site” – all the flats and pools have names to help the fishermen talk about their plans and exploits.
Matt scans the water to direct our captain
The entirety of Kiritimati is designated as a wildlife sanctuary, and is primarily populated by birds. 35 species have been recorded here, the vast majority being seabirds although three species of land birds are also present. Kiritimati is the most important breeding ground in the world for several species of seabird and many areas of the island are off-limits to avoid disturbing the bird population. Our first stop was to see a selection of these nesting seabirds.
Arriving to view seabirds
Beached on the edge of the lagoon
Seabirds in the more remote areas of the reserve
Nesting seabirds
A variety of land animals are also present on Kiritimati, most of them imported. Rats were already present as early as 1777, probably brought by earlier seafarers, and goats were introduced more recently in 2004. About 2,000 feral cats exist on the island, causing great damage to the bird population and planning is underway to control these predators. Feral pigs exist, mostly kept under control by hunting for food, and a few species of lizards appear to have made their own way to the island. Matt informed us that dogs are strictly controlled, with only male dogs being permitted on the island to avoid breeding. Rounding out the animal population is a large and ubiquitous number of crabs.
Matt directed the boat back to the west across the lagoons, to the abandoned settlement of Paris. As we approached the beach we encountered a man snorkeling just off the beach, gathering sea worms. Our captain beached the vessel on the brilliant white sand and we wandered around a little on the shore before boarding again and heading back to London. Matt drove us back to the lodge, and his wife admitted that a day out on the lagoon in the sun made her believe him a bit more when he claimed to be tired after a day’s work – she had thought he was just out lazing in the lovely weather!
Approaching Paris
The beach at Paris
Fishing "mother ship"
Sea traffic on our way back to port
That evening I received an email from Mary, the airport manager, making sure that we would be paying our airport fees before departure the next morning. Although not as bad as K-Oil, she had ignored many of the messages I had sent to her asking for information. When it came to taking money however she was entirely on top of things, replying almost instantly to my clarifying questions about amounts and methods of payment. They would only accept cash in Australian dollars (the national currency) so we made a late night trip to the island’s only ATM to stock up. After another great dinner we turned in for an early night. Once again, we’d be up well before dawn to depart Kiritimati.
Front gates of the lodge
Evening at the lodge
I have a friend that was a Christian missionary and was stuck on Kiritimati for months during covid because of the lock down. I think he ended up being there 6 months longer (maybe more) than he planned because they wouldn't let any boats in to get him.
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Kind of makes you wonder what they'd do to actually stop a boat from coming in to get him.
There were actually 4 of them together that were stuck. From a PR standpoint, I don't think it would be great for the sponsoring church to go in there and forcibly remove them.
They just rode it out. The worst part was not knowing when they could leave. Some of them were supposed to be going back to school (university) that fall and of course that didn't happen. Kind of shifted their plans.
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SoonerAviator
I suppose it's a grey area of "forcibly removing them" vs being "forcibly detained", lol.There were actually 4 of them together that were stuck. From a PR standpoint, I don't think it would be great for the sponsoring church to go in there and forcibly remove them.
Katamarino
Pattern Altitude
I was up a little after 3am the next morning. The catering staff had very kindly offered to get up and provide some simple food before our departure. I polished off an apple for breakfast and took possession of the sandwiches which they had made for us; inch-thick slabs of American cheese between white bread. They had offered us rather more but I’d declined due to the US’s strict laws around import of foodstuffs; if we turned up with anything uneaten we would have to pay hundreds of dollars in disposal fees.
The owner of the lodge and his daughter drove us back to Cassidy Airport. Not entirely to my surprise the place was deserted, with the terminal dark and locked up. This despite confirming the departure timings with all the relevant individuals on our arrival. I poked around and knocked on some doors but nothing stirred. I did discover that the window to the customs office was unlocked and thought about climbing in, but decided this might ultimately cause more issues than it solved. I discarded the idea of jumping the fence for similar reasons. The lodge owner headed off, stating that he knew where the airport manager lived and would knock on her door.
Dawn over Planey
Pre-flighting
Preparing for departure
With customs and immigration
Twenty minutes later the immigration man showed up, followed by customs. Neither of them had keys, and apparently there was supposed to be a watchman there keeping an eye on everything and permitting access; he was nowhere to be found. In the end they climbed in through the unlocked window that I’d found, and things got moving. Exit formalities were quickly completed, although the guy who takes the fees hadn’t shown up despite attempts to locate him. Twenty minutes later than planned we were finally able to start up and begin taxiing. As we made our way towards the runway a car zoomed up; the long awaited money man had finally arrived. With the clown show finally over we were given our clearance and departed from runway 08, turning left and beginning a slow climb to 9,000ft. As we departed we could see the airport fire engine idling outside its garage with lights flashing; the fire service had apparently turned up on time and were standing by just in case.
Taking off from Kiritimati
Coasting out from Kiritimati
Goodbye to the airport at Banana
Weather conditions en-route
We quickly established contact with San Francisco Radio over the HF. They were feeling particularly chatty this morning. Eventually we settle on hourly position reports, and leveled off in the cruise to begin the journey towards Hawaii. The flight was a little shorter than the previous one, at just 1,361 miles. About a third of the way through the flight San Francisco passed information of a “SigMet” weather alert for our area; embedded thunderstorms continuing as far as 8 degrees north. Fortunately the clouds were sufficiently scattered that we were able to remain mostly visual, and be sure of avoiding any dangerous storms.
Our route
A little while later San Francisco called up asking for a position report from our crossing of 14 degrees north. This was odd as we had passed this point an hour earlier and reported it to them at that time. “Oh sorry”, they responded, “I see you did report that one”. Two hours out from Honolulu we entered the US Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ). Shortly after this, as we passed RUDEE intersection, we were handed over to Honolulu control and given our first squawk code since leaving Australia. ADS-B weather started working again – this is weather information transmitted freely from ground stations that is displayed on the GPS screens in the cockpit. The US is the only place that uses this, and it’s a great aid to flight!
In flight
An hour and forty minutes out I noticed a change on the engine monitor. The cylinder head temperature of cylinder three had dropped, and the exhaust gas temperature had risen. This was indicative of a spark plug problem and a quick magneto check revealed that one of the two spark plugs for that cylinder had indeed stopped working. This was a great demonstration of the value that two independent ignition systems offer! A few minutes later the values returned to normal, suggesting that the plug had been temporarily fouled with a lead deposit, but I made a note to thoroughly check the ignition system in Hawaii.
90 minutes out we were given a reroute, adding another ten minutes to the flight time. We had been working hard to get through the cheese as we flew, but it had ultimately defeated us. To avoid any discussions around paying for international trash disposal, the cheese was jettisoned from the window as an offering to the deep. “Go West” by the Pet Shop Boys was playing over the intercom at the time and added a certain sense of occasion.
Approaching Honolulu
Marine traffic moored off Honolulu
Arriving in Honolulu
We touched down at Kalaeloa International Airport after a nine hour flight, and taxied to the FBO. Despite being clearly informed of our arrival time by phone and email it seemed that Customs and Border Protection had still managed to mess things up and hadn’t been expecting us until 2 hours later. The US is peculiar in that they won’t allow you to exit the aircraft until cleared by customs, and we ended up waiting there on the apron for an hour before CBP finally showed up. Despite this, it was great to finally be back in the USA, the country from which I had set out more than four years earlier; although the longest flight was yet to come!
The owner of the lodge and his daughter drove us back to Cassidy Airport. Not entirely to my surprise the place was deserted, with the terminal dark and locked up. This despite confirming the departure timings with all the relevant individuals on our arrival. I poked around and knocked on some doors but nothing stirred. I did discover that the window to the customs office was unlocked and thought about climbing in, but decided this might ultimately cause more issues than it solved. I discarded the idea of jumping the fence for similar reasons. The lodge owner headed off, stating that he knew where the airport manager lived and would knock on her door.
Dawn over Planey
Pre-flighting
Preparing for departure
With customs and immigration
Twenty minutes later the immigration man showed up, followed by customs. Neither of them had keys, and apparently there was supposed to be a watchman there keeping an eye on everything and permitting access; he was nowhere to be found. In the end they climbed in through the unlocked window that I’d found, and things got moving. Exit formalities were quickly completed, although the guy who takes the fees hadn’t shown up despite attempts to locate him. Twenty minutes later than planned we were finally able to start up and begin taxiing. As we made our way towards the runway a car zoomed up; the long awaited money man had finally arrived. With the clown show finally over we were given our clearance and departed from runway 08, turning left and beginning a slow climb to 9,000ft. As we departed we could see the airport fire engine idling outside its garage with lights flashing; the fire service had apparently turned up on time and were standing by just in case.
Taking off from Kiritimati
Coasting out from Kiritimati
Goodbye to the airport at Banana
Weather conditions en-route
We quickly established contact with San Francisco Radio over the HF. They were feeling particularly chatty this morning. Eventually we settle on hourly position reports, and leveled off in the cruise to begin the journey towards Hawaii. The flight was a little shorter than the previous one, at just 1,361 miles. About a third of the way through the flight San Francisco passed information of a “SigMet” weather alert for our area; embedded thunderstorms continuing as far as 8 degrees north. Fortunately the clouds were sufficiently scattered that we were able to remain mostly visual, and be sure of avoiding any dangerous storms.
Our route
A little while later San Francisco called up asking for a position report from our crossing of 14 degrees north. This was odd as we had passed this point an hour earlier and reported it to them at that time. “Oh sorry”, they responded, “I see you did report that one”. Two hours out from Honolulu we entered the US Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ). Shortly after this, as we passed RUDEE intersection, we were handed over to Honolulu control and given our first squawk code since leaving Australia. ADS-B weather started working again – this is weather information transmitted freely from ground stations that is displayed on the GPS screens in the cockpit. The US is the only place that uses this, and it’s a great aid to flight!
In flight
An hour and forty minutes out I noticed a change on the engine monitor. The cylinder head temperature of cylinder three had dropped, and the exhaust gas temperature had risen. This was indicative of a spark plug problem and a quick magneto check revealed that one of the two spark plugs for that cylinder had indeed stopped working. This was a great demonstration of the value that two independent ignition systems offer! A few minutes later the values returned to normal, suggesting that the plug had been temporarily fouled with a lead deposit, but I made a note to thoroughly check the ignition system in Hawaii.
90 minutes out we were given a reroute, adding another ten minutes to the flight time. We had been working hard to get through the cheese as we flew, but it had ultimately defeated us. To avoid any discussions around paying for international trash disposal, the cheese was jettisoned from the window as an offering to the deep. “Go West” by the Pet Shop Boys was playing over the intercom at the time and added a certain sense of occasion.
Approaching Honolulu
Marine traffic moored off Honolulu
Arriving in Honolulu
We touched down at Kalaeloa International Airport after a nine hour flight, and taxied to the FBO. Despite being clearly informed of our arrival time by phone and email it seemed that Customs and Border Protection had still managed to mess things up and hadn’t been expecting us until 2 hours later. The US is peculiar in that they won’t allow you to exit the aircraft until cleared by customs, and we ended up waiting there on the apron for an hour before CBP finally showed up. Despite this, it was great to finally be back in the USA, the country from which I had set out more than four years earlier; although the longest flight was yet to come!
Katamarino
Pattern Altitude
They went to another country and respected that country's rules, imagine that.
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I can understand it to a point. However, if I'm being detained it's another story. Tow me out in a rowboat or life-raft if you're that afraid of a virus, as I'm sure there are ways they could have figured it out. Reminds me of "The Terminal" where Tom Hanks' character gets stuck for months because he can't get through customs due to his passport becoming invalid during his trip.
Katamarino
Pattern Altitude
With the next adventure drawing very close, time to finish this off. Sorry for the laziness.
The next day was a non-flying day, visiting Pearl Harbor. Full write-up on the website and I won't repeat it here.
The following morning we made our way out to the airport again. Before departure to Maui, I had an appointment with an airworthiness inspector from the US Federal Aviation Authority’s (FAA) Honolulu Flight Standards District Office (FSDO). He would perform an inspection of the aircraft and, hopefully, issue my flight permit for the trip from Hilo to the mainland.
Parked up in Honolulu
The distance from Hilo to the California coast is much too great for Planey to fly it in one go without performing significant modifications to the stock fuel system. There is nowhere to stop between Hawaii and the mainland which means that an aircraft must be capable of flying a minimum of 2,050 nautical miles non-stop to make the flight. In stock configuration Planey can do about half of this; hence the requirement to install the ferry fuel system consisting of a 160 gallon bladder tank behind the front seats, with transfer pumps to take this fuel into the main aircraft fuel system.
All of this extra fuel weighs a considerable amount; when fully fueled for the flight to the mainland, the aircraft is about 20% over the certified maximum take-off weight. To operate overweight legally one must apply for and receive a permit from the FAA, and the aircraft inspection is part of this process. I had submitted the paperwork to get this process started a couple of months earlier. The inspector assigned was responsive and helpful, but it seemed that he hadn’t worked on a permit for a small aircraft before; my weight and balance calculations were returned to me with the suggestion that I replace the (correct) density I had used for avgas with the value for jet fuel.
The inspection was quickly completed and the FAA rep promised to send through the completed permit for me to print before departure from Hilo. The power in the FBO had been off when we arrived and had still not come back on, so they noted down my details to complete the invoicing later, and we were on our way.
The day's flights
Climbing hard, we departed north from the airport. After gaining enough altitude to clear the mountains between our position and the west coast of Oahu, we turned west and crossed them, tracking north along the coast. We descended past a scattered collection of satellite dishes towards Dillingham airfield for a touch and go; this airfield is one of the main GA fields on the island and has a high level of tourist sky-diving activity. From here we headed east along the coast, passing the Marine Corps Air Base at Kaneohe before striking out across the water towards the island of Moloka’i.
Countryside north of Honolulu
Flying north towards Dillingham
Approaching Dillingham
North coast of Oahu
Kaneohe base
North coast of Oahu
The water in the Ka’iwi channel between Oahu and Moloka’i had been whipped up by a stiff breeze and did not look very inviting. A single freighter could be seen plying its way across the waters. At 25 miles in width, the crossing did not take long and we were soon coasting in over Moloka’i, the fifth largest of Hawaii’s islands. The island is book-ended by two volcanos, imaginatively known as West Moloka’i volcano and East Moloka’i volcano. The island was home to a leper colony which operated for over 100 years, from 1866 to 1969. More than 8,500 people were exiled here during this time, to live out the rest of their days with no visitors or other contact with the outside world.
Coasting out from Oahu
Shipping in the Ka'iwi channel
We didn’t stop on Moloka’i, continuing instead to the nearby island of Lanai. A little smaller than Moloka’i, Lanai comes in at sixth in size out of the eight main islands of the Hawaii chain. Also known as Pineapple Island, due to its history as an island-wide pineapple plantation owned by Dole, the island is now 98% owned by software billionaire Larry Ellison with the remaining 2% held by the government or private homeowners.
Parked at Lanai
We stopped on Lanai, parking up and calling the island’s only taxi. It was a short ride to one of Hawaii’s top attractions (in my opinion) – the Lanai Cat Sanctuary. The sanctuary started its activities in 2004 with efforts to sterilize Lanai’s street cats, protecting the local bird population from too many felines on the hunt. The sanctuary relocated to its current location in 2009 and is now home to over 600 “Lanai Lions”. Since 2014 they have taken in more than 1,800 cats, with around 1,000 of those being re-homed through adoption.
Cat sanctuary
Cat
Another cat
Describing itself as a “purradise”, the sanctuary welcomes visitors 365 days a year, with no entry fee. They even give every visitor a bag of cat treats to distribute to the residents. The sanctuary sits on 4 acres of land, with 25,000 square feet of fenced-in living area for the cats divided across 6 enclosures. This allows a division of the population into groups who get on well, minimising the risk of cat fights!
Cat kitchen
After a happy and relaxing couple of hours bonding with new furry friends we were picked up by the taxi and dropped off back at the airport. We took off to the southwest and turned left along the south coast of Lanai, before crossing the Kealaikahiki channel to Maui.
Departure from Lanai
Approaching Maui
Like Moloka’i, Maui is an island of two volcanos joined in the middle by an isthmus. The airport sits on this central lowland and is one of the busiest in the Hawaiian chain, as befits the island’s role as second largest, and third most populous. We were cleared to land straight in against a stiff headwind, tucking in behind a Hawaiian airlines commercial jet. General Aviation parking is on the opposite side of the airport to the commercial terminal and was almost full, but after consulting with a local mechanic we found an open spot and tied Planey down.
To exit the airport we had to call security and wait for them to come and unchain the gate. This done, we caught an Uber to the rental car facility and picked up a Tesla Model 3 from Avis. This was the first time I had driven an electric car and I was impressed, although the island definitely needed better charging infrastructure to make it truly useful! As it was, we made it everywhere that we wanted to go without needing a charge, making it back at the end of the visit with 8% battery remaining.
Evening in Lahaina
Chinese museum in Lahaina
We had made reservations at a hotel in the downtown of Lahaina, an historic town on the west coast of Maui. After a short drive along the coast road we settled in to our room before wandering along the main street to check out some of the art galleries and enjoy dinner.
Sunset in Lahaina
The next day was a non-flying day, visiting Pearl Harbor. Full write-up on the website and I won't repeat it here.
The following morning we made our way out to the airport again. Before departure to Maui, I had an appointment with an airworthiness inspector from the US Federal Aviation Authority’s (FAA) Honolulu Flight Standards District Office (FSDO). He would perform an inspection of the aircraft and, hopefully, issue my flight permit for the trip from Hilo to the mainland.
Parked up in Honolulu
The distance from Hilo to the California coast is much too great for Planey to fly it in one go without performing significant modifications to the stock fuel system. There is nowhere to stop between Hawaii and the mainland which means that an aircraft must be capable of flying a minimum of 2,050 nautical miles non-stop to make the flight. In stock configuration Planey can do about half of this; hence the requirement to install the ferry fuel system consisting of a 160 gallon bladder tank behind the front seats, with transfer pumps to take this fuel into the main aircraft fuel system.
All of this extra fuel weighs a considerable amount; when fully fueled for the flight to the mainland, the aircraft is about 20% over the certified maximum take-off weight. To operate overweight legally one must apply for and receive a permit from the FAA, and the aircraft inspection is part of this process. I had submitted the paperwork to get this process started a couple of months earlier. The inspector assigned was responsive and helpful, but it seemed that he hadn’t worked on a permit for a small aircraft before; my weight and balance calculations were returned to me with the suggestion that I replace the (correct) density I had used for avgas with the value for jet fuel.
The inspection was quickly completed and the FAA rep promised to send through the completed permit for me to print before departure from Hilo. The power in the FBO had been off when we arrived and had still not come back on, so they noted down my details to complete the invoicing later, and we were on our way.
The day's flights
Climbing hard, we departed north from the airport. After gaining enough altitude to clear the mountains between our position and the west coast of Oahu, we turned west and crossed them, tracking north along the coast. We descended past a scattered collection of satellite dishes towards Dillingham airfield for a touch and go; this airfield is one of the main GA fields on the island and has a high level of tourist sky-diving activity. From here we headed east along the coast, passing the Marine Corps Air Base at Kaneohe before striking out across the water towards the island of Moloka’i.
Countryside north of Honolulu
Flying north towards Dillingham
Approaching Dillingham
North coast of Oahu
Kaneohe base
North coast of Oahu
The water in the Ka’iwi channel between Oahu and Moloka’i had been whipped up by a stiff breeze and did not look very inviting. A single freighter could be seen plying its way across the waters. At 25 miles in width, the crossing did not take long and we were soon coasting in over Moloka’i, the fifth largest of Hawaii’s islands. The island is book-ended by two volcanos, imaginatively known as West Moloka’i volcano and East Moloka’i volcano. The island was home to a leper colony which operated for over 100 years, from 1866 to 1969. More than 8,500 people were exiled here during this time, to live out the rest of their days with no visitors or other contact with the outside world.
Coasting out from Oahu
Shipping in the Ka'iwi channel
We didn’t stop on Moloka’i, continuing instead to the nearby island of Lanai. A little smaller than Moloka’i, Lanai comes in at sixth in size out of the eight main islands of the Hawaii chain. Also known as Pineapple Island, due to its history as an island-wide pineapple plantation owned by Dole, the island is now 98% owned by software billionaire Larry Ellison with the remaining 2% held by the government or private homeowners.
Parked at Lanai
We stopped on Lanai, parking up and calling the island’s only taxi. It was a short ride to one of Hawaii’s top attractions (in my opinion) – the Lanai Cat Sanctuary. The sanctuary started its activities in 2004 with efforts to sterilize Lanai’s street cats, protecting the local bird population from too many felines on the hunt. The sanctuary relocated to its current location in 2009 and is now home to over 600 “Lanai Lions”. Since 2014 they have taken in more than 1,800 cats, with around 1,000 of those being re-homed through adoption.
Cat sanctuary
Cat
Another cat
Describing itself as a “purradise”, the sanctuary welcomes visitors 365 days a year, with no entry fee. They even give every visitor a bag of cat treats to distribute to the residents. The sanctuary sits on 4 acres of land, with 25,000 square feet of fenced-in living area for the cats divided across 6 enclosures. This allows a division of the population into groups who get on well, minimising the risk of cat fights!
Cat kitchen
After a happy and relaxing couple of hours bonding with new furry friends we were picked up by the taxi and dropped off back at the airport. We took off to the southwest and turned left along the south coast of Lanai, before crossing the Kealaikahiki channel to Maui.
Departure from Lanai
Approaching Maui
Like Moloka’i, Maui is an island of two volcanos joined in the middle by an isthmus. The airport sits on this central lowland and is one of the busiest in the Hawaiian chain, as befits the island’s role as second largest, and third most populous. We were cleared to land straight in against a stiff headwind, tucking in behind a Hawaiian airlines commercial jet. General Aviation parking is on the opposite side of the airport to the commercial terminal and was almost full, but after consulting with a local mechanic we found an open spot and tied Planey down.
To exit the airport we had to call security and wait for them to come and unchain the gate. This done, we caught an Uber to the rental car facility and picked up a Tesla Model 3 from Avis. This was the first time I had driven an electric car and I was impressed, although the island definitely needed better charging infrastructure to make it truly useful! As it was, we made it everywhere that we wanted to go without needing a charge, making it back at the end of the visit with 8% battery remaining.
Evening in Lahaina
Chinese museum in Lahaina
We had made reservations at a hotel in the downtown of Lahaina, an historic town on the west coast of Maui. After a short drive along the coast road we settled in to our room before wandering along the main street to check out some of the art galleries and enjoy dinner.
Sunset in Lahaina
Katamarino
Pattern Altitude
Today we continue the Hawaii visit.
======================================================================
The next morning we drove a little inland to attend the Maui Pineapple Tour, at the Maui Gold Pineapple Plantation. About 15 of us were bundled onto a little tour bus and we set off, stopping first at the pineapple processing facility. Here they talked us through the pineapple processing steps in detail, as well as briefly sidetracking to discuss their view of the best Pina Colada recipe. The pineapple farmers, we were told, would split their time between work in the processing plant, and much more physically demanding tasks out in the fields.
At the end of the plant visit we were each presented with a freshly picked Maui pineapple to take with us. We all trooped back onto the bus and headed up the hill into the fields, to see the growing pineapples. It takes a few years to grow a pineapple plant to full maturity. We learned how the largest pineapples come from the younger plants, and as a plant matures its fruit becomes successively smaller but sweeter. The guide brought out several pineapples and a machete and treated us all to freshly cut pineapple chunks before giving us a bit of time for pineapple photos before we returned to the bus, and the tour came to a close.
Pineapple touring
Back in our Tesla Model 3, we decided to drive out to the east of the island along the famous scenic route “The Road to Hana”. This 50 mile coastal road features more than 600 curves along its length, taking over 2 hours to drive not including stops at the many impressive viewpoints. We took it slow, regularly stopping to take photographs, and then pausing for longer about halfway to try some banana bread at Aunty Sandy’s Banana Bread stand. Unfortunately they were all out of banana bread, something of an oversight given their name. We satisfied ourselves with hotdogs instead before carrying on to Hana.
Views from the Hana highway
Hana is a very small town. After a failed attempt to visit the nearby lava tube, due to their “cash only” policy and lack of any nearby ATMs, we drove down to the seafront instead and spent a while enjoying the sun and sand. We had hoped to continue along the highway beyond Hana, making a full loop of the volcano, but the road further on was closed due to landslides so we turned around and drove another two hours back the way we had come. It wasn’t a waste though, as the views in the opposite direction were just as beautiful.
Waterfalls on the Hana highway
We made it back to the hotel in Lahaina in the mid afternoon and spent another pleasant evening, our last one here, exploring the town. What we couldn’t have known was that this would be the last time we could ever experience this version of Lahaina; just weeks after we left, devastating wildfires razed almost all of the town to the ground.
======================================================================
The next morning we breakfasted near the hotel before setting out again in the Tesla to make our way back to the airport. Instead of following the same route as we’d taken over the last couple of days we headed north, around the coast in the opposite direction. It was a longer drive but significantly more scenic – and significantly more winding! The road was single track in many places and speed was rarely over 25 mph.
We returned the car with a little under 10% charge, and caught another Uber back to the General Aviation side of the airfield. Once again we had to call airport security and wait for them to come and unchain the access gate. They turned up quickly though, so we were soon fully loaded (including our Maui pineapples) and taxiing for departure. We took off and followed the northern coastline of Maui along to the east, paralleling the Hana Highway which we had driven the day before.
Taking off from Maui
Cruising alongside the Hana highway
We took the opportunity to briefly land at the Hana airport before striking out across the Alenuihaha Channel towards the Big Island. While we were on the ground a Medevac helicopter dropped in to pick up a patient; a ten minute flight was much better for a critical case than a winding two hour drive.
The day's flying
A stiff wind was blowing once again as we crossed the channel south. The imposing volcanic peaks of the Big Island were clearly visible before we even left gliding distance of Maui. Our first stop on this largest of Hawaii’s islands was the small Upolu airport on the northern tip, before we took off once again and tracked the northern side of the island towards Hilo.
Mauna Kea
Upolu airport
Hilo is the most easterly airport in Hawaii, and boasts all the features that I would need to enable my flight to the mainland: a mechanic who works on small aircraft, fuel availability, and a nice long runway. The first of these was needed to fulfil the requirement for the overweight flight permit that the aircraft be inspected before the flight in question. I also wanted to have a thorough check of the ignition system, given the transient failure of one spark plug on the arrival to Hawaii. I’d been in contact with local pilot and flight instructor Scott before arriving in the islands and he had given me a lot of very useful local information, including the details of the mechanic at Hilo. As arranged, we taxied straight to his hangar on arrival.
Approaching Hilo
Richard the mechanic was waiting for us along with his son and a friend. We got straight to work, removing the cowls and spark plugs and draining the oil for replacement. Richard’s son serviced the plugs as Richard and I gave the engine a good going over, pausing only to go and collect my rental car from the terminal before they closed. We pushed on through a few rain showers, emptying the aircraft entirely and sorting the equipment into piles of what would stay with me, and what would go home in checked baggage on a commercial flight; I would be making the flight to the mainland solo, and with as little unnecessary weight on board as possible.
Maintenance work in Hilo
Maintenance work in Hilo
By the time we had finished the work on the aircraft it was after dark. We bought snacks from a local supermarket and enjoyed a peaceful night in the Inn at Kulaniapia Falls.
======================================================================
The next morning we drove a little inland to attend the Maui Pineapple Tour, at the Maui Gold Pineapple Plantation. About 15 of us were bundled onto a little tour bus and we set off, stopping first at the pineapple processing facility. Here they talked us through the pineapple processing steps in detail, as well as briefly sidetracking to discuss their view of the best Pina Colada recipe. The pineapple farmers, we were told, would split their time between work in the processing plant, and much more physically demanding tasks out in the fields.
At the end of the plant visit we were each presented with a freshly picked Maui pineapple to take with us. We all trooped back onto the bus and headed up the hill into the fields, to see the growing pineapples. It takes a few years to grow a pineapple plant to full maturity. We learned how the largest pineapples come from the younger plants, and as a plant matures its fruit becomes successively smaller but sweeter. The guide brought out several pineapples and a machete and treated us all to freshly cut pineapple chunks before giving us a bit of time for pineapple photos before we returned to the bus, and the tour came to a close.
Pineapple touring
Back in our Tesla Model 3, we decided to drive out to the east of the island along the famous scenic route “The Road to Hana”. This 50 mile coastal road features more than 600 curves along its length, taking over 2 hours to drive not including stops at the many impressive viewpoints. We took it slow, regularly stopping to take photographs, and then pausing for longer about halfway to try some banana bread at Aunty Sandy’s Banana Bread stand. Unfortunately they were all out of banana bread, something of an oversight given their name. We satisfied ourselves with hotdogs instead before carrying on to Hana.
Views from the Hana highway
Hana is a very small town. After a failed attempt to visit the nearby lava tube, due to their “cash only” policy and lack of any nearby ATMs, we drove down to the seafront instead and spent a while enjoying the sun and sand. We had hoped to continue along the highway beyond Hana, making a full loop of the volcano, but the road further on was closed due to landslides so we turned around and drove another two hours back the way we had come. It wasn’t a waste though, as the views in the opposite direction were just as beautiful.
Waterfalls on the Hana highway
We made it back to the hotel in Lahaina in the mid afternoon and spent another pleasant evening, our last one here, exploring the town. What we couldn’t have known was that this would be the last time we could ever experience this version of Lahaina; just weeks after we left, devastating wildfires razed almost all of the town to the ground.
======================================================================
The next morning we breakfasted near the hotel before setting out again in the Tesla to make our way back to the airport. Instead of following the same route as we’d taken over the last couple of days we headed north, around the coast in the opposite direction. It was a longer drive but significantly more scenic – and significantly more winding! The road was single track in many places and speed was rarely over 25 mph.
We returned the car with a little under 10% charge, and caught another Uber back to the General Aviation side of the airfield. Once again we had to call airport security and wait for them to come and unchain the access gate. They turned up quickly though, so we were soon fully loaded (including our Maui pineapples) and taxiing for departure. We took off and followed the northern coastline of Maui along to the east, paralleling the Hana Highway which we had driven the day before.
Taking off from Maui
Cruising alongside the Hana highway
We took the opportunity to briefly land at the Hana airport before striking out across the Alenuihaha Channel towards the Big Island. While we were on the ground a Medevac helicopter dropped in to pick up a patient; a ten minute flight was much better for a critical case than a winding two hour drive.
The day's flying
A stiff wind was blowing once again as we crossed the channel south. The imposing volcanic peaks of the Big Island were clearly visible before we even left gliding distance of Maui. Our first stop on this largest of Hawaii’s islands was the small Upolu airport on the northern tip, before we took off once again and tracked the northern side of the island towards Hilo.
Mauna Kea
Upolu airport
Hilo is the most easterly airport in Hawaii, and boasts all the features that I would need to enable my flight to the mainland: a mechanic who works on small aircraft, fuel availability, and a nice long runway. The first of these was needed to fulfil the requirement for the overweight flight permit that the aircraft be inspected before the flight in question. I also wanted to have a thorough check of the ignition system, given the transient failure of one spark plug on the arrival to Hawaii. I’d been in contact with local pilot and flight instructor Scott before arriving in the islands and he had given me a lot of very useful local information, including the details of the mechanic at Hilo. As arranged, we taxied straight to his hangar on arrival.
Approaching Hilo
Richard the mechanic was waiting for us along with his son and a friend. We got straight to work, removing the cowls and spark plugs and draining the oil for replacement. Richard’s son serviced the plugs as Richard and I gave the engine a good going over, pausing only to go and collect my rental car from the terminal before they closed. We pushed on through a few rain showers, emptying the aircraft entirely and sorting the equipment into piles of what would stay with me, and what would go home in checked baggage on a commercial flight; I would be making the flight to the mainland solo, and with as little unnecessary weight on board as possible.
Maintenance work in Hilo
Maintenance work in Hilo
By the time we had finished the work on the aircraft it was after dark. We bought snacks from a local supermarket and enjoyed a peaceful night in the Inn at Kulaniapia Falls.
flyingcheesehead
Touchdown! Greaser!
I had my first Maui Gold pineapple this year at Oshkosh. I guess they have selectively bred to get the best-tasting pineapples, and it worked - They are fan-freaking-tastic. One of these days I'm going to order some. https://mauipineapplestore.com/
flyingcheesehead
Touchdown! Greaser!
After going back to the planning thread and remembering that there was a pandemic and an unplanned engine overhaul in the midst of the trip IIRC, I'm very curious about the final debrief! Looks like this was originally going to be an 8-month trip, with on-and-off schedule, and turned into several years. Still sounds well worth it all!
Katamarino
Pattern Altitude
After a lovely B&B breakfast we walked down to the falls, where we came across a small pump house which seemed to be supplying water to the Inn. Returning to the Inn, we loaded up our rental Jeep and headed out to explore some of the Big Island.
Waterfall at the Inn
Our first destination was Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. This park and UNESCO World Heritage Site is enormous, with an area of more than 1,300 square kilometers. Such is the huge size of the US however that this only places it at a rank of 24th in terms of size among the national park system. The park encompasses two active volcanoes: Kilauea (one of the world’s most active volcanoes) and Mauna Loa, the world’s largest shield volcano.
We drove through the scrub forest that populates this part of the park, regularly broken by lava flows of various ages and the occasional small volcanic caldera, now dormant or extinct. Soon we came to the top of a steep escarpment, with views of lava flows of various vintages stretching down to the coastline. The road wound its way down the slopes to parallel the coast.
Lava cliffs on the Big Island
This road used to continue along the shore and exit the park to the east, but has been cut multiple times by lava flows through the years. These days the road is kept open as far as the Holei Sea Arch, but beyond that is maintained as a single lane dirt road at most, mainly for emergency access to Lower Puna. This residential area sits outside of the park to the east, and is at risk of being cut off by lava flows on the other side of the settlement, resulting in the need for this secondary route.
Lava flows
We backtracked up the slopes and along Chain of Craters Road almost to the park entrance, stopping to visit Nahuka, also known as Thurston Lava Tube. Five hundred years old, this tube was formed by the flow of lava at temperatures of 1,100 C, or 2,000 F. It was discovered in 1913. The outer layers of a lava flow cool quicker than the center, forming a solid crust through which molten rock continues to flow. When the molten core flows away once an eruption ceases, a lava tube is left behind.
Thurston Lava Tube
From the lava tube we made our way to Kilauea crater. A shield volcano of about 250,000 years in age, it emerged above the ocean about 100,000 years ago and is the most active of the five volcanoes which form the island of Hawaii. Regular eruptions of various intensities, the most recent being just a week before our visit, have caused significant destruction to the area over the years including the famous destruction of large parts of the nearby Leilani Estates in 2018. Although no lava was visible at this time, a multitude of steam vents gave evidence to the volcano’s active status.
Kilauea crater
===============================================================
The following day we drove into the town of Kona and had lunch on a restaurant balcony overlooking the waterfront, Pina Coladas included. From there we walked along the shorefront and dropped in to visit the Huliheʻe Palace. The palace was originally built out of lava rock by John Kuakini, the governor of the island of Hawaiʻi, during the Hawaiian Kingdom. After he died in 1844 the palace eventually made its way into the hands of Hawaiian royalty, serving as a vacation home. The palace was turned into a museum in 1927, and it remains one to this day.
Huliheʻe Palace
This week happened to be the week during which the OceanGate Titan submersible had disappeared, lost on the wreck of the Titanic. One silver lining to this tragedy was that the Atlantis Submarine tours running from Kona were not very heavily booked, and we were able to secure last minute bookings on a half-empty vessel. We killed a bit more time walking around Kona, including a visit to the Gupton art gallery, before returning to the shuttle boat out to the Atlantis submarine.
In the Atlantis submarine
The low passenger load meant we had our pick of windows. The tour took us through waters of gradually increasing depth, down to about 140 feet. Unsurprisingly for a submarine tour, it focused on coral, fish, and boat wrecks. The stories of each wreck were told to us by the guide and included a yacht which was accidentally set on fire by the skipper’s wife, and a tour boat which was sunk in a case of insurance fraud.
===============================================================
I started the next day solo with a trip back to Mauna Kea. After the mandatory thirty minute wait at the visitor center to acclimatise I was permitted to go on my way and I carefully climbed along the gravel road towards the 13,803 foot summit. Despite the many warnings the road was not at all bad; this made sense as the multitude of telescopes on the summit would need reasonable access for operation and maintenance. Taking into account the brief foray up to 14,500 feet over Greenland, this was the second highest elevation I had reached on the entire trip, and I wasn’t even in Planey.
Observatory on Mauna Kea
The summit of Mauna Kea is dotted with telescopes. The conditions here are ideal for observation; cool, dry air which is above the vast majority of pollutants or other haze. There is no significant light pollution nearby. Local government have introduced various incentives for observatories to locate themselves here, resulting in a present day count of thirteen observatories, each funded by as many as eleven different countries.
Views on Mauna Kea
I made my way back down the mountain, following the instructions from the rangers to use low gears in order to save the brakes from overheating. Heading back to the bed and breakfast I grabbed my iPad and drove out to the airport. It was time for one last check flight, post-maintenance, before setting out on the long haul to the mainland.
Waterfall at the Inn
Our first destination was Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. This park and UNESCO World Heritage Site is enormous, with an area of more than 1,300 square kilometers. Such is the huge size of the US however that this only places it at a rank of 24th in terms of size among the national park system. The park encompasses two active volcanoes: Kilauea (one of the world’s most active volcanoes) and Mauna Loa, the world’s largest shield volcano.
We drove through the scrub forest that populates this part of the park, regularly broken by lava flows of various ages and the occasional small volcanic caldera, now dormant or extinct. Soon we came to the top of a steep escarpment, with views of lava flows of various vintages stretching down to the coastline. The road wound its way down the slopes to parallel the coast.
Lava cliffs on the Big Island
This road used to continue along the shore and exit the park to the east, but has been cut multiple times by lava flows through the years. These days the road is kept open as far as the Holei Sea Arch, but beyond that is maintained as a single lane dirt road at most, mainly for emergency access to Lower Puna. This residential area sits outside of the park to the east, and is at risk of being cut off by lava flows on the other side of the settlement, resulting in the need for this secondary route.
Lava flows
We backtracked up the slopes and along Chain of Craters Road almost to the park entrance, stopping to visit Nahuka, also known as Thurston Lava Tube. Five hundred years old, this tube was formed by the flow of lava at temperatures of 1,100 C, or 2,000 F. It was discovered in 1913. The outer layers of a lava flow cool quicker than the center, forming a solid crust through which molten rock continues to flow. When the molten core flows away once an eruption ceases, a lava tube is left behind.
Thurston Lava Tube
From the lava tube we made our way to Kilauea crater. A shield volcano of about 250,000 years in age, it emerged above the ocean about 100,000 years ago and is the most active of the five volcanoes which form the island of Hawaii. Regular eruptions of various intensities, the most recent being just a week before our visit, have caused significant destruction to the area over the years including the famous destruction of large parts of the nearby Leilani Estates in 2018. Although no lava was visible at this time, a multitude of steam vents gave evidence to the volcano’s active status.
Kilauea crater
===============================================================
The following day we drove into the town of Kona and had lunch on a restaurant balcony overlooking the waterfront, Pina Coladas included. From there we walked along the shorefront and dropped in to visit the Huliheʻe Palace. The palace was originally built out of lava rock by John Kuakini, the governor of the island of Hawaiʻi, during the Hawaiian Kingdom. After he died in 1844 the palace eventually made its way into the hands of Hawaiian royalty, serving as a vacation home. The palace was turned into a museum in 1927, and it remains one to this day.
Huliheʻe Palace
This week happened to be the week during which the OceanGate Titan submersible had disappeared, lost on the wreck of the Titanic. One silver lining to this tragedy was that the Atlantis Submarine tours running from Kona were not very heavily booked, and we were able to secure last minute bookings on a half-empty vessel. We killed a bit more time walking around Kona, including a visit to the Gupton art gallery, before returning to the shuttle boat out to the Atlantis submarine.
In the Atlantis submarine
The low passenger load meant we had our pick of windows. The tour took us through waters of gradually increasing depth, down to about 140 feet. Unsurprisingly for a submarine tour, it focused on coral, fish, and boat wrecks. The stories of each wreck were told to us by the guide and included a yacht which was accidentally set on fire by the skipper’s wife, and a tour boat which was sunk in a case of insurance fraud.
===============================================================
I started the next day solo with a trip back to Mauna Kea. After the mandatory thirty minute wait at the visitor center to acclimatise I was permitted to go on my way and I carefully climbed along the gravel road towards the 13,803 foot summit. Despite the many warnings the road was not at all bad; this made sense as the multitude of telescopes on the summit would need reasonable access for operation and maintenance. Taking into account the brief foray up to 14,500 feet over Greenland, this was the second highest elevation I had reached on the entire trip, and I wasn’t even in Planey.
Observatory on Mauna Kea
The summit of Mauna Kea is dotted with telescopes. The conditions here are ideal for observation; cool, dry air which is above the vast majority of pollutants or other haze. There is no significant light pollution nearby. Local government have introduced various incentives for observatories to locate themselves here, resulting in a present day count of thirteen observatories, each funded by as many as eleven different countries.
Views on Mauna Kea
I made my way back down the mountain, following the instructions from the rangers to use low gears in order to save the brakes from overheating. Heading back to the bed and breakfast I grabbed my iPad and drove out to the airport. It was time for one last check flight, post-maintenance, before setting out on the long haul to the mainland.
Katamarino
Pattern Altitude
It seemed foolish to set out on a 2,050 nautical mile flight after maintenance without performing a test flight first. I decided to make this a tour of the Big Island, to see a few new sights and land at a few new airfields. I flew anti-clockwise along the north coast first, towards the local airfield at Waimea.
Departing from Hilo
Cliffs west of Hilo
Waimea airport
Coastal Big Island
I continued from Waimea south along the coast, past a collection of expensive luxury resorts to a touch and go landing at Kona International airport. The lava flows which we’d seen from the ground the previous day were every bit as impressive from the air.
Luxury resorts in Kona
Coastal waters of the Big Island
Winds were blowing hard from the east and there was turbulence along the coast in the lee of the island. Things smoothed out as I approached the southernmost tip of the Big Island; the most southerly point of the fifty states.
Lava flows near the bottom tip of the Big Island
Lava flows near the bottom tip of the Big Island
Southernmost point of the 50 states
As I flew back up the east coast I took the opportunity to overfly the crater at Kilauea, taking care not to enter the airspace around the volcano itself. My elevated position offered much more comprehensive views of the crater than we’d had at ground level. Hilo tower cleared me to land straight in from the south and I touched down on runway 03, taxiing to the GA parking area and shutting down.
Kilauea crater
Next time - the Big Flight.
Departing from Hilo
Cliffs west of Hilo
Waimea airport
Coastal Big Island
I continued from Waimea south along the coast, past a collection of expensive luxury resorts to a touch and go landing at Kona International airport. The lava flows which we’d seen from the ground the previous day were every bit as impressive from the air.
Luxury resorts in Kona
Coastal waters of the Big Island
Winds were blowing hard from the east and there was turbulence along the coast in the lee of the island. Things smoothed out as I approached the southernmost tip of the Big Island; the most southerly point of the fifty states.
Lava flows near the bottom tip of the Big Island
Lava flows near the bottom tip of the Big Island
Southernmost point of the 50 states
As I flew back up the east coast I took the opportunity to overfly the crater at Kilauea, taking care not to enter the airspace around the volcano itself. My elevated position offered much more comprehensive views of the crater than we’d had at ground level. Hilo tower cleared me to land straight in from the south and I touched down on runway 03, taxiing to the GA parking area and shutting down.
Kilauea crater
Next time - the Big Flight.