You have not been to Kauai, and you have not taken a helicopter tour? What in blue blazes are you ready for? Robinson Helicopter needs to be at the top of everyone’s bucket checklist. No fooling, you simply just must get out to the island, book your tour, and choose a helicopter excursion all-around the most lovely, enchanting, awe inspiring location on earth. End looking at this and contact your travel agent, now!
Alright, I’m a bit biased I truly flew Kauai tours for many several years, and in the fascination of full disclosure, I flew for a enterprise named Air Kauai. So of study course I have a distinctive viewpoint on helicopters, and flying about islands in them. I am heading to attempt to share with you, dear reader, why it is that you just ought to drop whatever other vacation designs you might have, get a ticket to Lihue, and hop aboard a tour helicopter. You can go to Orlando, or Branson, or the Catskills subsequent calendar year.
Here’s why you need to do this, what helicopter organization you must take into account, how substantially it may cost, what to consider together, and what time of calendar year and time of day to go. Additionally a several extras: what to hope on the helicopter tour, what you may see, a basic safety overview, and other odds and finishes to make your life-altering experience even extra gratifying. Let’s start out with having to Kauai, and a bit of the island’s mystique, commencing, as they say, at the starting, the origin of Kauai.
Kauai, or the Backyard Island, is the furthest (uncovered) northwest island in the Hawaiian chain. I say uncovered due to the fact the Hawaiian Islands are bit by bit disappearing. No, this just isn’t a cause to move your trip up a few weeks, rest. This is a little bit of Hawaiian trivia that some of your tour mates possible would not know. There are in point 127 islands in the Hawaiian chain, not just the 7 you see on a map today–Hawaii, Maui, Molokai, Lanai, Oahu, Kauai, and Niihau. The Hawaiian chain stretches across the Pacific for 1,200 miles, ending in a tiny coral atoll referred to as Kure, which is, in truth, the very initial Hawaiian Island, courting back again practically 100 million a long time. As a reference, one particular of the Hawaiian Islands is a minor put termed Midway which is situated, very well, mid way across the chain, about 600 miles Northwest of Oahu.
All the islands are volcanic in origin. Their supply is a volcanic rift in the ocean ground termed the Hawaiian Emperor vent, which lies deep less than h2o seventy miles south and east of Hawaii, the so-called ‘Big Island’. More than the final a hundred million yrs this volcanic vent has made all 127 islands*. The islands split the area, establish into a land mass, interesting adequately to assistance daily life kinds, and then, thanks to wind, drinking water and pure corrosive variables, they little by little erode away, sinking back beneath the waves. The islands are also located immediately on a tectonic plate with a northwesterly drift, which can take them off toward Japan and Asia in excess of their lifetimes. Each and every Hawaiian island really moves Northwest about 50 % an inch for each 12 months. Geologists assert that Kure, for instance, will, in a several dozen million a long time close up parked close to the Kamchatka peninsula.
Kauai itself is about 7 million many years old. Its precise origin, the volcano that designed the land mass referred to as Kauai, is now named Mount WaiAleAle (Why-Olly-Olly). WaiAleAle sits in the center of the island. Go to Google Earth and style that in, and see where it normally takes you. Much more about this mountain later on, during your tour.
Speaking of the tour, let’s get on with it. Reserve your flight into Lihue, the main city on Kauai. There are direct flights from the west coastline. Most of the helicopter tour operators fly from Lihue airport. This is a listing of these providers, and an overview of every single:
Blue Hawaiian: Excellent corporation, excellent protection record, not the most economical, but perhaps the greatest, and this is no time to scrimp. ‘Blue’ flies from Lihue 12 months round, offering a detailed, educated tour of about an hour. Not nearly enough time to see it all, but sufficient to drop your jaw to the ground. get in touch with Blue Hawaiian Helicopters
Safari: Superior firm with a long historical past on Kauai. Great security record, and hugely experienced pilots. Safari presents some perks other tour organizations do not these kinds of as a video of your vacation, accessible for a nominal fee. Safari Helicopters Inc.
Island Helicopters: Island is the bargain tour, the no frills, hop aboard and see the island helicopter tour. Good but not terrific, and, as I stated, this is no time to scrimp. Simply call Island Helicopters.
Jack Harter Helicopters: Jack Harter himself was the first helicopter tour male on Kauai. Jack is the aged male of helicoptering on island, obtaining once flown Frank Sinatra and other Hollywood varieties close to different film places when ‘ol blue eyes was filming on Kauai many moons back. Jack Harter Helicopters is the original. That said, the firm is superior, not excellent, highly proficient, secure, with aggressive rates and a superior tour. Harter offers two different plane dependent on your curiosity–the AStar for a standard, cozy, tour, and a tiny chook flown without the need of doors for those people who tote highly-priced cameras and are, by God, going to use them. Jack Harter Helicopters Inc.
There are other providers to select from, but individuals higher than are the ones I recommend. This is the relaxation of the story: what to anticipate, what to take (and not acquire), pricing, temperature, safety, when to go, and numerous other criteria.
When you get there for your tour you can be offered a safety briefing for each FAA polices, just like on the plane. You’ll discover about working with numerous safety objects, and be specified a transient overview of your tour. Then you can expect to have to move on a scale. Sorry, individuals, the airways are allowed to use common weights, helicopter operators should use precise. And yes, some providers do cost additional higher than a sure excess weight. It is for plane operating parameters, hence for your protection and others’. You may have to spend of training course, and the rate construction is dependent on so numerous variables I will not likely get into information. Suffice to say that a tour will price tag any place from $one hundred seventy five.00 apiece up to $300,00, as I say, depending on scheduling arrangements, company, savings and many others. Pay it, you are going to never ever regret it. After the workplace take a look at you are going to be taken to the helicopter exactly where you are going to meet your pilot and floor crew.
At the flight line you can expect to obtain an extensive security briefing from the pilot on exiting the aircraft, use of flotation equipment, intercom system, headsets and many other security and good to know products. Dependent on the business you decide on, you can expect to most likely board the plane ‘hot’, that is with the engine in operation, blades turning. Just pay back notice to your floor crew, and no problems. 1 note of warning–do not go near the tail of the helicopter, ever. Often keep inside the pilot’s line of vision. The tail rotor is NOT your buddy.