Day 11 - Flying High

As you might have guessed from the title, today was the big day, the day Dianna has been dreaming of since we scheduled our trip to Kauai. Today was powered hang glider flight over Kauai day. Yep, we took an introductory flight lesson on powered hang gliders today. I must say for the record, that I am not the fan of small craft flight that my wife is. I'm okay with it, but it isn't my hot button...not my cup of tea...not my bag. But I have to admit that the flight today was one of the coolest things I have ever done.

I know, I know..."I got some 'splainin' to do". Let me first direct your attention to the website for the company with whom we booked our flight. It's an outfit called Birds in Paradise and it's run by a world-class hang glider pilot who used to compete professionally on an international circuit covering North, Central and South America. His photography and video credentials are equally impressive. He's credited with over 600 magazine covers, mainly for Ultra Flight magazine, which is targeted to all ultra-light fliers, including hang gliders, paragliding, fixed wing ultralights, etc. He's been running this business in Kauai since 1988. In short...he knows his stuff. (That's mostly for Dianna's mom's benefit...check the website, Jan - you'll feel better. )

The craft, which they call "trikes" are pretty much that. Sort of a 3-wheeled motorcycle that runs on premium grade automobile fuel with a propeller on the back of the craft. The lift is provided by a large, specially-designed hang glider wing. The trike provides power for takeoffs, some control of ascent and descent and landings, but once the craft is airborne, it actually can fly for miles without motor assistance. I've heard that non-powered hang gliders have traveled over 250 miles.

We had scheduled a 90-minute flight so we could see a maximum amount of the island by air. The route we flew tooks us from the southwest 'corner' of the island (Port Allen Airport) along the interior mountain ridges to Wai 'ale 'ale crater (which was unusually clear today...God has just been so merciful to provide unseasonably clear weather for our activities so far) up to Hanalei then along the Na Pali coastline to then over the Waimea Canyon (called the Grand Canyon of the Pacific), then back to the Port Allen Airport. Un-freakin-believeable! Di's pilot/instructor told her that we'd gone over mile high at one point, but what's so astounding and cool about the flight is that it is not a static, go-straight-there-come-straight-back type of flight. Rather, the two pilots clearly love this sport, so they make it fun. They show you what the craft is capable of doing and even have you steer and control the flight for short periods of time.

We flew through clouds. We flew low over valleys. We slowed the engine to an idle and just flew as silent as birds on the updrafts coming off the cliffs. We dipped with several hundred feet of the ocean, then back up to thousands of feet is a few seconds. And we saw parts of Kauai that can be seen in no other way, because we went to places that not even the helicopters go...and we did so at a slower, more interactive and fun-filled pace. It was amazing. They don't allow you to bring your own camera (liability) but they take 60-70 shots on their wing-mounted cameras and, if you opt for it (we did) they also take high definition video from nose-mounted camera on the owner's trike (I was riding with him). We don't have those images yet, but you can be sure I'll post a few here on the blog when we get them. We should be able to get the still shots CD tomorrow. They are going to mail the video home to us.

I have been trying to formulate descriptors for this post to somehow relate this incredible experience to you...and I keep coming up short. There simply are no words to fully convey the details of even a small portion of the sensations of something like this. The air smells different up there. There are times, when an updraft pushes you up that you feel completely weightless - like gravity doesn't apply to you for a short period. There moments of "Oh, crud...what did I get myself into!" when you are in the first few minutes of flight as your instructor demonstrates how easily your trike can bank, climb, and descend. There were several times in the flight where I was stuck mute by the sheer beauty and enormity of this part of God's creation that I was privileged to see. There were waterfalls, of course, and such majestic ridges of richly green mountains that it almost made you hold your breath. I could drone on and on, but it would all fall short.

Inspired by what we saw from the air, we braved the twists and turns of HI State Highway 552 the 11 miles to the top rim of Waimea Canyon. There are several parking areas for lookout points to see different profiles of the canyon. It was truly stunning. We took some pictures with Di's 'big camera' but don't have them downsized to fit on a blog yet.




After coming down off the mountain, we were exhausted and a little hungry for a treat, so we stopped at the original Lappert's Gourmet Ice Cream Store and Factory in Hanapepe. They still make their super premium ice cream on premises fresh every day. (Ummmm good....). That held us over until we made a late dinner and we're getting ready to turn in for the night.

Aloha!