From Maui

A buddy of mine asked if I could fly him and his friend to Maui for a wedding, sure I said, no problem. Which is how I found myself returning from The Valley Isle not long before sunset. Things were beautiful from over Molokini crater for most of the way across the channel.

 Far ahead through the windscreen I could see the peaks of the three mountains on Hawaii; Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa and Hualalai rising above the layer of vog surrounding their wide slopes.

Looking forward and below I could see there was an overcast of clouds creeping out over the sea that I would have to get under before I could make it to the runway in Kona. I pulled back the power, pushed the nose over and slid beneath a canopy of grey clouds. There was a brief burst of lingering sunlight off to my right before the shroud of vog caused the horizon to disappear.

Taking a quick look at my iPad I saw that I was still 30 miles from the Kona airport but there was no sight of the Big Island to be seen anywhere about. I had to drop down to 3,000 feet to get under the overcast and could see the uninviting dark windswept sea beneath me. But the vog was so thick it was like flying in a dark grey vacuum. Not much to do about now but to keep the wings level, stay at my altitude and fly the heading that will get me home. After a tense 20 minutes of very focused pilotage Keahole Point appeared out of the haze and I saw my landing spot before me.

Land, taxi to ramp, tie down and drive home looking forward to a cold beer after a challenging flight. The sun was just heading down when I got home and walked onto my lanai. A beautiful scene was unfolding before me as a gazed west.

An ocean liner had just raised it's anchor and was sailing off into the sunset! Grabbed a beer, sat down and enjoyed the end of the day.

Lucky to live Hawaii!

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