First Few Days on Oahu

Well, it's been a very exciting trip to Oahu so far.

Let's start with the alarm not going off for the flight. Should have been 4:00 am. Could swear I set it on my cellphone. Fortunately my backup plan worked just fine, that is, the TV came on at 4:00

Needed to run into work before the flight at 8:20, so I had to jam the pedal to the floor to make it all happen. Over the Tacoma Narrows bridge at high speeds, up the I-5, in to work, back to SeaTac, and arrived at 6:25 am. You'd think that would be OK, right?

Wrong.

Lineup immense at ticket booth. Confirmation number entered, machine says "no seat assignment has been made, seat will be assigned at gate...."; security lineup from hell, gate lineup from hell, but finally, on to the flight; five hours of snoozing, reading, watching the movie, and it's into HNL, to the baggage carousels. I waited. I waited. I waited. So, when everybody but twenty of us had come and gone, it was one last line, to fill out the baggage claim form.



Pam met me outside. Our first meeting. It was very nice. We went for lunch, down by the docks. It too was nice. Then, it was into the truck and out to the North Shore, through Haleiwa town. Into the surfer shops we strode, looking for the beach shorts, and flip flops and t-shirt that would get me through the night....... Stuck a few toesies in the water, then out to her house, which is very nice, a block off the beach.

Forgot to buy coffee. Went to find some first thing this morning, saw a brochure for a glider soaring operation at Dillingham Airfield, which is just a few miles from Pam's house. Thought that might be fun. But, since a purpose of my trip was to go to my company's flight training operation at the former Barber's Point naval air station near Pearl Harbor, I thought it would be a bit of overkill to think about soaring. I'd placed a few calls earlier last week, telling people at the flight training operation that I'd be in town.

Went down to the beach to fly kites and swim. Pam was working on her computer. My baggage had been found, and they were going to deliver it by 1:00 in the afternoon. My phone rang. It was Joe Kina, a flight instructor at Galvin Hawaii whom I'd worked with in Seattle last year. He said he'd be delighted to fly with me later in the week, but was working at his other job. I asked where that was, and he said at the glider soaring operation at Dillingham.

I figured that was too good to pass up, so at 3:00 Pam dropped me off, and Joe and I flew for an hour.

I'll admit to it being about as much fun as I've ever had flying. Fabulous views, real stick and rudder flying, and a fine pilot to show me the ropes.

Joe, if you've read this, thanks my friend. You were amazingly generous, and I can say without hesitation that I'd recommend that every visitor to Hawaii who's ever thought of being a pilot should give you a call.

I chose to start walking home, even though Joe had offered a ride, because i wanted to do some photography. As it turns out, there were a lot of kite-surfers, so I had to pause for some of that....

And then there was just the beauty of the North Shore mountains.

It's been a fine first two days.

More to follow, but check out the photos in any case.