Sunday, March 27, 2011

Friends in High Places

We have a friend named Christoph who is here from Germany training to become a helicopter pilot. He will take his test to obtain a commercial license in just a couple of weeks.

He recently had instrumentation training which required a four-seat helicopter so Chris and I were invited to ride around the island for two hours while he practiced flying by instruments only. For the exercise, he wore blinders so that he could not navigate by landmark. So we climbed into a helicopter with our blinded student driver who - no joke - had to ask his instructor how to start the chopper.

All kidding aside, we could see that Christoph is already a skilled pilot and I was completely comfortable flying with him. I've seen our island from the air before, but I was just as stunned as ever by the beauty. Incredible!


Christoph works his way through his preflight checklist before we leave Kona.



Christoph prepares to land in Hilo with his blinders removed.

The entire flight offered views like this one of the Kohala Coast with Hualalai peaking up through the clouds.

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