End of the Christmas Break 2012

I had to shoot two properties from my plane a couple days before the end of the three week Christmas break. My son Luke and his buddy Josh asked if they could go along and I said sure, why not. About time I bring Luke into the family business and let him earn his keep.

Before we took off I told both 15 year old boys that this was a revenue flight, meaning we were flying to make money and there would be a lot of yankin' and bankin' to get the right photos. As such, if either one of them began to feel poor they had to let me know so I could level out and get them back on the ground before they puked in my plane.  We took off out of Kona Airport at midmorning and made our way to the first shoot; the new Kamakana Villages development south of Kealakehe High School.

As I set up my run on the target I would turn the controls over to Luke so he could keep the wings level throughout my photo run. When I was done shooting I would take back the controls and instigate a steep turn to re-establish us on the the next heading to once again shoot the property from the next angle.

Luke did a great job, holding a solid heading with wings level throughout the Kamakana shoot. We next flew to a house in Kona Heavens I had to capture. A bit more challenging an assignment as it was on a steeper incline requiring steeper turns to get back around for the next leg after each shoot.

I completed two turns on the target and after retaking control of the aircraft from Luke I felt a tap on the shoulder from the only person in the back of the plane, Josh. I lift the headset from my right ear and look aft toward him...he has a green glow about him and tells me he's not really feeling good. I look back at the house and then to Josh and realize I could knock this job out in two more turns, but if I do I'm pretty sure I'm going to have a barfing boy on my hands.

No problem I tell him. We'll be straight and level back to the airport, you just hang on. I pull back the power, pull the flaps up and head for Kona Airport. I trim up the plane and turn the controls over to my son Luke telling him to keep us straight and level back to KOA. I take a moment to look at the photos I have shot and realize from the sun creeping into my view that we are not flying straight and level. I look over at Luke and see that he is staring blindly out the right hand window.

"Hey Luke," I say "you can't fly straight and level looking out the side window, you need to be looking...Oh, he's green as well and trying to dismiss his airsickness by looking out the side window. Crap, two 15 year old boys about to barf on me! I take control of the plane and fly a smooth course back to Kona.

Just before I call the Kona tower to announce my intent to land a radio call comes over my headset: "Kona tower Comanche 1234 is inbound with a suspected nose gear failure"

Well, without going into all the aviation minutia I'll just tell you that a plane was inbound with an indication that it's nose wheel was not down and locked, meaning if he touched down and the gear collapsed he would slide down the runway on two wheels and the airport would be shut down for who knows how long until the aircraft could be removed from the runway.

"Cherokee 26Mike make a right 360" the tower told me in order to give the possibly stricken plane more time to land. As I began my 360 degree turn I looked over at Luke and saw him drop his chin to his chest, he had heard and understood the 360 command as well and was not happy about it.

We saw the Comanche sliding down final but couldn't tell if it's nose wheel was down or not. The fire equipment was out and stationed along the taxiways of runway 17.

"Cherokee 26Mike make another 360 to the right" Kona tower instructs me. As I rolled into the turn I looked at Josh and Luke in sequence and saw that I had little time to get the both on the ground before things would get smelly and ugly. God, I hope they don't send us around on another 360!

They didn't. The Comanche landed OK. We did as well and the boys were very happy campers when I taxied to a stop and cracked the cockpit door and let them out.

Afterwards I shot a couple of photos of them not so near puking.

I still had to finish shooting the last property, so I took the boys over to Roy and Susan's house and after pitching the boys out, Roy and I made our way back to the airport to finish the job. He would be my first officer for the rest of the day.

We managed to get the shots done and before heading home we flew over his house and rev'd the engine to get the boys to come outside. They stood about the jaccuzi on our first pass, but managed to climb onto the roof for my next flyby.

Roy and I landed, he doing a fine job as co-pilot this day. After we landed there was still a few hours of sunlight left, and a day or so of freedom before the boys headed back to school. As such, Roy and I landed, drove up to his house,  piled the assembled boys into our cars and headed for Kua Bay. There was a fine north swell just starting to fill in and it would be a good time for the boys to end the Christmas break with a bit of bodywhompin'

And so we did.

Not a bad day for me, Roy and the boys. Flying, climbing on a roof and seeing your dad fly by and then spending the sunset hours bodysurfing with your buddies. Not a bad way to end the Christmas break at all.

May everyone have a great 2013!

Mahalo,

Brian