KOA (PHKO) - Kailua-Kona - Island Adventure Flying Course

[Chris]

My wife and I recently took a vacation to the island of Hawaii (a.k.a The Big Island) along with our niece. While planning the trip, I thought it would be pretty cool if I could log some flying time there in order to see the island from a different perspective. However, I wasn’t very optimistic that I’d find an aircraft available for rent, and I was a bit nervous about the prospect of flying in unfamiliar airspace in an unfamiliar aircraft. I was pleasantly surprised to find a link to Tropicbird Flight Service’s Island Adventure Flying Course. This unique course allows you to fly out of Kona with a CFI in one of their aircraft, for some training focused on learning the ins and outs of Hawaii weather, geography, and airspace. Since Tropicbird is not a charter service, this training is only available to pilots, but it is perfectly acceptable to bring along some passengers.

Our adventure started around 8:30am while it was still relatively cool and calm. Mike Lauro, CFI and owner of Tropicbird, spent some time with me on the ground reviewing the weather patterns on the island. Hawaii has several micro-climates due to the volcanoes interacting with the trade winds, but the patterns seem pretty predictable. After we verified that the ceilings on the east and southeast sided of the island looked promising, the four of us launched in a Cessna 182 with me in the left seat. Tropicbird also has a G1000-equipped Cessna 172 as well as a Diamond DA20 available.

Preflight inspection

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Kona airport

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[Chris]

We started our circuit of the island heading south along the Kona coast at about 1500 MSL. The views of the bays were spectacular with coral reefs visible through bright blue and emerald green water. Winds are calm on this side of the island so it was easy going. From the air, it is much easier to see the many lava flows which have built up the island (and which still occasionally destroy roads and homes). Most of the coast is rugged lava rock, but there are also several beaches, some comprised of black or green sand due to their composition of lava or olivine. Continuing south, we transitioned through a wind shear zone as we came out of the shadow of Mauna Loa. My niece wasn’t too thrilled with the resulting bumps.

Coastal waters

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Old lava flows

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After rounding the southernmost point of the United States, we climbed and proceeded northeast through Volcanoes National Park. The Kilauea crater is covered by a semi-permanent TFR due to high concentrations of sulfur dioxide, so we couldn’t look down into the caldera.

Kilauea from a distance

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[Chris]

However the primary active volcanic site on the island is Pu’u O’o, several miles to the east of the TFR. This crater contained a lava lake with some activity around the edges where lava was spewing forth, making for some pretty cool viewing. Pu’u O’o is extremely difficult to reach from the ground, so the Island Adventure Flying Course is one of the few practical ways of seeing it. Helicopter tours are also an option for non-pilots, and the airspace around the vent was a little busy with a couple of ‘copters coming and going, although traffic seemed to flow fairly well. Mike explained some of the protocols for communicating position reports around the lava lake, using location names such as “the notch” or “the Jacuzzi”.

Lava lake at Pu'u O'u

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Leaving the pool of molten lava behind, we continued northeast to Hilo, transitioning through its Class D airspace over acres of macadamia nut, fruit, and orchid farms. Northwest of Hilo we entered an area littered with waterfalls amidst lush greenery. The views got even better as we continued past the Waipi’o and Waimanu valleys containing copious waterfalls, some over 2500’ tall.

Waipi'o valley

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Waimanu valley

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[Chris]

By this time, my niece was starting to turn a bit green since we were still on the windy side of the island (though I would describe it as nothing more than continuous light chop), so rather than getting a close-up view of the valleys, we decided to continue north. With a gorgeous view of Maui about 25 miles away, we rounded the point at Hawi and returned to the leeward side of the island after transitioning through one more wind shear zone, which was clearly visible on the surface of the ocean below. Following the sun-baked desert of the Kohala coast, we high-tailed it back to Kona where a C-17 heavy was busy practicing touch-and-gos. Careful to avoid wake turbulence from the C-17, we landed just shy of mid-field (with a 70 degree crosswind on runway 17) to finish the flight.

Maui

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Even though we had a woozy passenger, we thought the flight was one of the highlights of our trip and worth every penny. Mike is a patient laid-back instructor and extremely knowledgeable about Big Island history and geography. I highly recommend it to all pilots visiting the island of Hawaii.

Me and Mike

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[Kai]

Wow. Great pictures. Thanks for sharing!

[alexanderk]

I'm going to be on Maui windsurfing for the next couple of weeks. Any recommended place there for the "island flying checkout"?

[Chris]

I don't have any personal experience with them, but Maui Aviators has some good reviews on Airnav. It looks like they have the same sort of setup as Tropicbird has on the big island. From the Maui Aviators home page, click on the Flightsee tab.

[alexanderk]

Thank you Chris! Will check it out. Never flew a Cessna anyway before, so it will be interesting.

[Erik]

Wow - beautiful.

About 15 years ago - long before I started to learn to fly but I was pining too - I took a helicopter ride around Maui. It was amazing. One advantage of a helicopter for such a ride is we could stop in place and also we went down into some of those deep gorges. And back then - I had a camera with film - and it was out of film! But I remember it...

[Gary]

I flew a C172 N9512F with instructor on the Big Island from PHKO in January 2009. It was a fun flight, not cheap but worth it. The airplane is currently registered to Maahlo air tours which has flights over Honolulu and Oahu but not the Big Island.