Here is a Landsat image of the island of Hawaii, courtesy of NASA. This island is formed by five shield volcanos and its longest dimension is about 93 miles. I've tried to locate: 1-Hilo, 2-Kilauea Volcano, 3-Kailua-Kona, and 4-Mauna Kea observatories. Mauna Loa is the large volcano near the center.
On Friday, January 15 we flew on Hawaiian Airlines flight 0132 for the 36 minute flight from Maui to Hilo International Airport on the East side of the island of Hawaii. The aircraft was a Boeing 717 with 117 seats. Another airport building with no walls!
Now here it got complicated. The plan was to take a helicopter ride over Kilauea Volcano viewing geothermal activity. But the helicopter only carries six passengers. So our group was split into three smaller groups. Each of these took the helicopter ride, visited Big Island Candies, and had lunch in the Hilo Bay Cafe, all at different times. Our Tour Manager made everything flow smoothly.
Safari Helicopters has an open flight line, no TSA security. Coats and bags are not permitted; only cameras and binoculars. To balance the aircraft, we were weighed before our seats were assigned. The A-Star Ariel Special 350 has seats for the pilot and two passengers in the front row and for four passengers in the rear row of seats. Before boarding we had a safety briefing and were issued our life vests. Never go beyond the front half of the helicopter. The back rotor spins at ten times the speed of the top rotor. We we each assigned a number. Since the engine was on and noisy, boarding was all orchestrated by hand signals. On board, each person had noise cancellation headphones with a sound feed so that we could hear what pilot Richard was saying.
Fortunately the weather was terrific. The only way I knew we had taken off was that all of a sudden things on the ground started moving and getting smaller. Kilauea Volcano is the most active volcano on the planet. It has been erupting almost continuously since 1983. [The main constituents of volcanic gases are water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and hydrogen sulfide (H2S).]
On the 45 minute flight we saw, among other things, smoking craters and vents, a person walking (!), silvery fresh lava flows, and where lava had flowed into a housing development, gaps in the lava with trees, portions of streets, and even one house. I liked that the pilot took safety seriously. He narrated as we flew, describing what we were seeing. At one point another helicopter suddenly appeared over a hill at one o'clock (the direction). Richard stopped talking mid-sentence. Once we and the other craft had successfully passed he resumed where he had left off. (These two pictures were taken inside the helicopter.) I purchased the DVD of our flight.
Where did we go on our helicopter ride? Look at the map above; go to Kilauea Volcano; to the East is a horseshoe shaped lava flow; the right arm has gotten wider and flowed through Royal Gardens Subdivision.
Then we had a special treat that wasn't on the itinerary. One of the people in our group has been involved with the Imiloa Astronomy Center. She and our Tour Manager arranged for us to visit. The theme is Where Astronomy Meets Hawaiian Culture and it opened in 2006. There are numerous exhibits. It even has a 3-D planetarium. (Now that's something I'd like to see.) Explaining some of the exhibits was Chad Kalepa Baybayan, Resident Navigator. (Isn't that an oxymoron?) He described how early Polynesians navigated to the Hawaiian Islands across more than 2000 miles of open ocean some time between 300 to 800 A. D. Without our modern instruments, they did this by measuring their speed, time, and direction. They observed the sun, stars, wind, swells, rhythm of their double-hull canoes, seaweed, birds--terns, clouds (even the color of the clouds). They used the fact that on the lee side of islands there are no or small waves. Even though they couldn't use Polaris, the North Star, they could use pairs of stars to point South. The Resident Navigator spoke of his voyages on a replica boat using traditional navigation.
Next stop, Kilauea Lodge. It is located at about 5000 feet and is just outside Volcanoes National Park. Originally built as a YMCA camp, now it is a lodge and restaurant. It is a bit rustic, no television, no telephones, but the heated towels were very nice. My breakfast included a half papaya with lime, quite a treat. [It was bit hazy when I took this picture. The brightness and contrast were adjusted using iPhoto.]
Tomorrow, on the ground at an active volcano.
