Hawaii

Ghery

Ghery

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Feb 25, 2005
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Olympia, Washington
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Display name:
Ghery Pettit
Last week while my wife and I were in Kona we rented a C-172 from Tropic Bird Flight Service at KOA and went down to the area where the lava is entering the ocean. Big billowing clouds of steam and gasses. Actually spotted lava flowing into the water. Great flight. The weather was closing in a bit, but we made it in, saw what we were looking for and then took the off shore route back (clouds had come in and blocked the over land route we took north of South Point). 2.5 hours of flying in paradise. Take a look at the pictures.

As we did two years ago, I had the CFI, Mike Lauro, come along rather than spend the time getting checked out. It doesn't really add all that much to the overall cost of the flight and he makes a great tour guide (as well as being able to pronounce the place names on the radio).

2.5 hours of dual in the C-172 was less expensive than a 2 hour ride (for 1 person) in one of the helicopter tours outfits' fling wings. And my wife rode free. Not so if we had taken a helicopter tour.

Speaking of helicopters, we were delayed an hour as the airport had an emergency earlier in the morning. One of the helicopter sightseeing outfits had an emergency and closed the runway for an hour after autorotating to a landing. Seems he lost his tail rotor and was able, through keeping up forward speed and reducing power during the decent, to put it down in a manner that allowed all aboard to walk away. An incredible demonstration of skill on the part of the helicopter pilot. I think I'll stick with fixed wing aircraft for a while longer.

Aloha!
 
wow - nice pictures. Nice story. Sounds fun (except for the autorotation and the delay, I bet that wasn't fun).
 
Ghery said:
Last week while my wife and I were in Kona we rented a C-172 from Tropic Bird Flight Service at KOA and went down to the area where the lava is entering the ocean. Big billowing clouds of steam and gasses. Actually spotted lava flowing into the water. Great flight. The weather was closing in a bit, but we made it in, saw what we were looking for and then took the off shore route back (clouds had come in and blocked the over land route we took north of South Point). 2.5 hours of flying in paradise. Take a look at the pictures.

As we did two years ago, I had the CFI, Mike Lauro, come along rather than spend the time getting checked out. It doesn't really add all that much to the overall cost of the flight and he makes a great tour guide (as well as being able to pronounce the place names on the radio).

2.5 hours of dual in the C-172 was less expensive than a 2 hour ride (for 1 person) in one of the helicopter tours outfits' fling wings. And my wife rode free. Not so if we had taken a helicopter tour.

Speaking of helicopters, we were delayed an hour as the airport had an emergency earlier in the morning. One of the helicopter sightseeing outfits had an emergency and closed the runway for an hour after autorotating to a landing. Seems he lost his tail rotor and was able, through keeping up forward speed and reducing power during the decent, to put it down in a manner that allowed all aboard to walk away. An incredible demonstration of skill on the part of the helicopter pilot. I think I'll stick with fixed wing aircraft for a while longer.

Aloha![/QUOTE

Unless it's a new flow, it sounds like you flew around the southern reaches of the Big Island to just south of Hilo ?

Those Islands are so perfect for hopping in small aircraft !

Perplexing change in a Honolulu FBO's policy that I had rented from a few times for overnights along the Islands before 9/11. AFTER 9/11, they would no longer alow me to rent OVERNIGHT, because I was from the MAINLAND !?!???
I could however, rent for a single day though.
Click to expand...
 
Dave Krall CFII said:
Unless it's a new flow, it sounds like you flew around the southern reaches of the Big Island to just south of Hilo ?

Those Islands are so perfect for hopping in small aircraft !

Perplexing change in a Honolulu FBO's policy that I had rented from a few times for overnights along the Islands before 9/11. AFTER 9/11, they would no longer alow me to rent OVERNIGHT, because I was from the MAINLAND !?!???
I could however, rent for a single day though.
Click to expand...

Not a new flow, just a continuation of the one that's been going since 1983.

I have no idea what the FBO's policy is all about. Last I checked Hawaii was just another state in the union.
 
Holy thread resurrection, Batman!

So I'm heading to Hawaii with the fiancee and another couple in just under 2 weeks. I'd like to get some flying in while I'm out there. We'll be in Kona for the bulk of the trip, and in Honolulu for the last couple of days. Ghery, I see where you flew out of. Does anyone else know of any other options, and what kind of prices I'm looking at? I'm not going to do the full check-out, rather go up with an instructor for a little bit.

Here's another thing - my fiancee had done one of the helicopter tours on a previous visit with her family, and thought it would be good for all of us to do it again. I'd rather fly myself. Her concern was that if I was flying, I wouldn't get to do as much sight-seeing. So, for those of you who have flown out there, when you're up with an instructor, did you get to do much sight-seeing or were you too busy flying the airplane? I do plan to fly myself regardless of whether we do the helicopter tour, but I don't really want to spend the extra $$ on the helo tour if I already get to see everything from the airplane.

Thanks for the input!
 
I did exactly the flight as described in the original post last year, just before July 4. I was able to do sight-seeing. With the instructor, you can say "your plane" and look at whatever you want. Better than an auto-pilot! I cost quite a bit more, but worth it. I stayed at Kona too. I think you have a lot more flexibility with the plane than the helo that tends to keep to a schedule. I've never done the helo trip, so I can't really compare the two.

Take lots of pictures and please share them!
 
PJ - I've also done that same flight as Gary. Tropicbird is probably the best option; Mike's a really nice guy, too. It was quite expensive - something like $230/hr for a DA20 and CFI. 172's probably very similar.

It's worth it, though.

-Felix
 
sba55 said:
PJ - I've also done that same flight as Gary. Tropicbird is probably the best option; Mike's a really nice guy, too. It was quite expensive - something like $230/hr for a DA20 and CFI. 172's probably very similar.

It's worth it, though.

-Felix
Click to expand...

t0r0nad0 said:
Tropicbird is pretty expensive. Does anyone have any experience with this outfit?

http://hawaiiflightadventure.com/courses.aspx
Click to expand...

I last flew with Tropicbird 3 years ago, and it was $200/hr dual in the 172. They are the only ones I've flown with on the big island (3 times), so I can't help you with any other outfits. Mike is great to fly with. The outfit I flew with out of HNL does not appear to be in business anymore. And if you make it to Maui, Maui Aviators is great (or was a number of years ago).

Lately we've been staying on Kauai (will do so again in August). No rentals there. Just helicopers and http://www.tropicalbiplanes.com/. Done both, highly recommend the biplane ride.
 
Last summer I rented a 172 from Georges Aviation out of HNL.

http://www.georgesaviation.com/index.html

Prices were reasonable for a 172, and the instructor was a great tour guide for my wife and I. Plenty of time for sightseeing/photos with the instructor there. Plus, you get to log time in Hawaii (and my first Bravo landing).

Tim

t0r0nad0 said:
Holy thread resurrection, Batman!

So I'm heading to Hawaii with the fiancee and another couple in just under 2 weeks. I'd like to get some flying in while I'm out there. We'll be in Kona for the bulk of the trip, and in Honolulu for the last couple of days. Ghery, I see where you flew out of. Does anyone else know of any other options, and what kind of prices I'm looking at? I'm not going to do the full check-out, rather go up with an instructor for a little bit.

Here's another thing - my fiancee had done one of the helicopter tours on a previous visit with her family, and thought it would be good for all of us to do it again. I'd rather fly myself. Her concern was that if I was flying, I wouldn't get to do as much sight-seeing. So, for those of you who have flown out there, when you're up with an instructor, did you get to do much sight-seeing or were you too busy flying the airplane? I do plan to fly myself regardless of whether we do the helicopter tour, but I don't really want to spend the extra $$ on the helo tour if I already get to see everything from the airplane.

Thanks for the input!
Click to expand...
 
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