43 Hilo - Honolulu

4. April 2007

Hilo is on the eastern side of ”The Big Island”, the southern most island of Hawaii. It is the airport closes to the west coast on the mainland USA. I will depart from here to California – but first I will fly to Honolulu. 
 

I spend a night I Hilo, before I rented a car and drove to the still active volcano only 20 miles inland. Here you can actually see red-hot lava running down the mountain side and into the ocean.
 

I drove further to the other side of the island to Kailua Kona, the main tourist area here. Got a room overlooking the bay right on the water front. I could sit on my balcony and watch large turtles in the water below. 
 

Tuesday morning I drove north east around the volcano and back to Hilo to depart for Honolulu.
After filing an IFR plan, I was ready to depart – only to realise that the starter motor would not work.
 

I managed to get hold of a mechanic, who removed the cowling and engaged the starter, so that I could start the engine. But it would work only once!
 

Fortunately I had already arranged for the engine to have a 100 hour service done by a Cessna workshop, when I arrived in Honolulu. Now they would have to replace the starter motor as well. This will be the third one installed.
 

After a nice flight at 8000 feet I arrived in Honolulu by the Jule.Jule4 arrival and then a visual for runway 04R.  On final descend I flew just 300 feet over a 737 departing runway 8R below me.
 

Taxied to the General Aviation parking, where the Cessna workshop is located, and got a taxi to Waikiki Beach.
 

I will probably spend about 2 weeks here in Hawaii, before I fly to California