Sunday, June 29, 2014

Flying in Hawaii


As part of my bucket list of flying in all 50 states, I took the opportunity to check off another state, a hard one, while on a business trip in Hawaii.  As I’m sure it is obvious by now that I am a huge Cirrus fan, it only seemed fitting to find a Cirrus to rent in Hawaii.  This is not an easy task since there are very few of them in Hawaii and there aren’t any for rent.  I had posted a note on the COPA forums and got a suggestion to fly with Maui Flight Academy since they have a Cirrus to do training in.  I started exchanging e-mails with Laurence Balter the owner and instructor at Maui Flight Academy a couple months ago and I started to formulate a plan to accomplish this task on one of my upcoming trips.

While on a TDY trip in Australia, my travel plans changed and I had to leave early for my follow-on trip to Hawaii, which got me to the island a few days early and with time to kill.  Since it just so happened to be Fathers Day, I thought “why not go do something fun since I can’t be with my family”, so I contacted Laurence and he was very accommodating to meet my requirements.  He was able to work me into his day since he had clients that put them on Lanai for a couple hours of site seeing and lunch.  On the morning of 15 June, I hopped on an Island Air ATR-72 and took a short 30 minute flight from Honolulu to Lanai to link up with Laurence. 

I linked up with Laurence and we headed out to his Cirrus, a 2007 SR22G3.  What was comical about his plane was the tail number N779LB, which is pretty darn close our past aircraft N779WC.  Climbing into this plane felt like coming home.  I had been flying a 2009 SR20G3 with Perspective, but I never feel that comfortable in it like I did my Avidyne equipped aircraft.  We started it up and I taxied to RW21 and took off.  We departed to the east and around the coastline of Lanai and then proceeded north to Molokai.  We intercepted the coast and then proceeded to follow it to the northeast.  The area was gorgeous, especially Molokai, and for you movie buffs you may know that the opening scenes of Jurassic Park as they fly toward the island.  We made our way close to the coastline by several waterfalls and then by the old Belgian missionary Saint Damien founded in 1873.  Then we proceeded farther west over the Kauhako Crater Pond  - a small yet 800-foot deep pond.  From here we flew out over Kahiu Point light house and circled around for a touch and go at Kalaupapa Airport (PHLU) on RW5.  Kalaupapa is also the airport for the last “leprosy” colony that has had more than 8000 residence over the years.  The remaining few have since been cured.  After this we circled back around and followed the coast to the West and then cut across the island just east of Molokai (PHMK) and headed back to Lanai where I landed on RW 3.







Kauhako Crater Pond 

Kahiu Point light house and Kalaupapa Airport (PHLU) 

Flying this Cirrus was totally comfortable as if I had been flying my old plane non-stop for the past year.  It was really as if I hadn’t ever sold it.  It was a great experience to get back in the left seat of an SR22 again and the scenery was amazing.  Laurence was awesome and was a great tour guide.  He said my skills didn’t show any degradation and made his “instruction” more of a joy ride for him. 

Although the plane is based out of Maui, Laurence is very accommodating to link together other flights to help make travel work out.  He can also ferry the plane to Oahu if needed, but additional costs may be incurred.  If you are looking for a great way to see the islands, I highly recommend giving Laurence a call.  Check out his website at www.mauiflightacademy.com.
My approximate flight path (via Foreflight)

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