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Flight
by Alastair Monk Weather:
FS Meteo current weather Scenery:
Default FS2002 Aircraft: EMB-120
by Chuck Lamb and Tony Radmilovich Lockheed
Super Constellation by Mike Stone Ford
Tri-Motor by Pierino Primavesi Beaver
Floatplane by Fred
Banting Helio
Super Courier by
Steven Grant Lockheed
L10 Electra
by Dave Eckert and Dale De Luca Ahhh!
The warm trade winds rustling through the coconut palms. The lush
tropical settings in up-country
Maui. The sunsets from the deck of Jameson's
in Haleiwa. Now this is my idea of a place to visit for a little
flying. After
months of arse freezing Arctic conditions, mountain dodging and dubious
weather/tricky approaches, we have been paroled to paradise. Apparently
the Fearless Flounder thought since we didn't lose a lot of planes last
month (although I understand that an away team is still searching for
Hans) we could have a little break in the conditions this month. This
was fine with me since I haven't been to the Aloha state in far too
long. Since
I was in Queenstown, New Zealand after the last assignment, I had a
little traveling to do to get to Hawaii. After a quick hop from
Queenstown to Flight Club International in a grand old DC-3, I took a
little time to tend the cows and do a little gardening. I ran into Bill
at the Wolfboy Lounge and had a thoroughly exhilarating conversation
about the color of my walls and the webpage accents. As I headed for the
door I heard a voice behind me calling, "I'm a famous author and
you have cows... who would most people choose as a design consultant
there mate?" "I'd
love to stay and continue our chat but I'm late for Hawaii" I said
as I headed for the commuter terminal. I
checked out the Embraer EMB-120 for the short ride to Christchurch (Pic
A). As I prepared to taxi to 20L I spotted Bill lugging a
couple gallons of paint towards my house. I guess it's a good thing he
doesn't have the website password. At Christchurch, I picked up the ex-TWA
(Pic B) Super Constellation we just acquired to take it on the
first leg of it's trip to the TooMuchFS paint shop in Redmond, OR. The
flight from Christchurch to Honolulu was fourteen hours and it was a
good thing we didn't get diverted because we came in on fumes. Once
in Honolulu, it was time to look up some old haunts. I checked in to the
Moana Surfrider in Waikiki, dropped my bags and headed over to Lewers
Street in search of refreshment. My favorite Margarita spot, Malia's
Cantina had gone non-alcoholic so I was forced across the street to
Moose
McGillycuddy's. I forgot what a wild party spot this was and decided
to head over to Hernando's
Hideaway on Kuhio Ave. for a little Tequila break. I still had my
"Tequila Club" punch card so I did my best to get closer to
that free one.
Well,
so much for partying... there's some flying to do. Since Alastair said
these flights are meant for "low and slow", I figured a
perfect example for the first leg around Oahu would be the Ford
Tri-Motor. I headed over to historic Ford Island and found a grand old
silver Tri-Motor parked on the ramp waiting for me. I got the three Wasp
radials started and warmed up and everything set for departure. The
Ford rumbled down the runway and began a leisurely climb-out at about
500fpm. We made our right turn over the USS Arizona (Pic 1) and
headed east over Honolulu Intl. The weather wasn't bad, but we hit
some nasty turbulence from about 2,500' up. The passengers were
beginning to grouse about the banging around the old bird was doing...
they should try it strapped to the wicker baskets they call seats in the
cockpit!
After
circling around to the North Shore, we headed south from Haleiwa
over the pineapple groves and back to Ford Island (Pic 3) and
brought it in to end our Oahu tour (Pic 4). After a quick visit
to the Foster
Botanical Gardens for a little tranquility, it was back to to Pearl
Harbor where our Turbo Beaver float plane was waiting. We
taxied out to the open harbor and took off to the north (Pic 5), circling
around over Waikiki and on to Koko head. Once again it was a
bone-jarring ride up to 4,500' where it finally smoothed out a little.
We climbed on up to 6,000' and turned on to the MKK VOR. We cruised
along the north side of Molokai, past new soon to be opened Flight Club
Molokai airport and along the spectacular cliffs. Again, we were forced
to endure a pretty good bit of bouncing around at lower altitudes.
Locking onto the OGG VOR, we headed for Kahului. Coming in over Kahului
Bay and the cruise ships (Pic 6), we landed on the bay near the
airport. Since
we are here, it seemed like a good idea to do a little sightseeing
between flights, so with the help of a rental car, I headed over to Lahaina
for the afternoon. I wanted to go back to Hana but didn't have time to
make the incredible 2-1/2 hour drive from Kahului so I bummed a Helio
Super Courier (Pic 7) for a quick flight upcountry. Though
beautiful from the air, nothing compares with the tropical paradise on
the ground. We passed over the Seven
Sacred Pools (Pic 8), and prepared for the approach to Hana
airport (Pic 9). After landing, I headed over to the Hotel
Hana. I had lost the drink recipe for their "Mauna Kea
Snow" and had a urgent need to replace it, so after sampling a
couple to make sure it hadn't changed I headed back to the airport. I
took off to the east and turned back around to follow the south
coastline around Haleakala Crater (Pic 10). It's amazing to see
how barren and moon-like the terrain on the south side of Haleakala is
compared to the tropical north side. We followed the coast along to Kehei,
turning north back to Kahului. It
was time for the third and final leg of our Hawaiian tour and what
better plane to do a little Pacific Island exploration than the
venerable Lockheed L10 Electra (Pic 11)? Ours still had it's old
Northwest Airlines livery and was a beauty. Departing PHOG (Pic 12),
we headed south and back out over the water for a while (Pic 13).
Unfortunately, the clouds kept us from seeing much of the craggy north
side of the Big Island but things cleared a bit as we approached Hilo
and we began the long climb up to 15,000 ft so we could fly over the
tops of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. Heading back around to Hilo, we passed Kilauea
(Pic 14) hoping for a performance but not much was happening. One
of Hawaii's ever present afternoon rain showers paid us a visit as we
approached Hilo and we brought our tour of Paradise to an end with a
nice, soft touchdown. Thanks
Alastair for a very fun flight! Tony
Radmilovich tony@toomuchfs.com
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