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Awesome, Breathtaking, Not Enough Great Words to Describe
The flight was amazing, but we did not fly from Hilo. When our scheduled time (from Hilo) arrived, the weather was below minimum at the volcano. This was very disappointing since Hilo weather was nice. But, Hawaii weather is very volatile.
We rescheduled for the next day as a "reserve flight" (needed more people to "confirm" the flight). Before the scheduled time, Paradise Helicopters called to say the flight was still only "reserved", but they had an opening in a different, circle the whole island, flight from Kona. They would upgrade me for no additional cost to take that one. We jumped at it.
The flight was amazing. We got to see the whole island, in addition to the volcano and real, live, flowing lava. Our pilot was Koji and he was awesome. The weather over the volcano was mixed, but he was able to navigate through the clouds enough to maintain the FAA rules for height and get us over the actual volcano caldera. Then, we headed for the current eruption points on the southern slopes and saw even more lava in the second vent. Moving further to the new lava fields, he located some live, flow lava. "WOW!!!" is all I can say.
The rest of the flight was great, too. Flying low up the valley on the north shore was wild. Seeing all the waterfalls was also terrific.
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| Attended as: | Couples | ||
| Posted on: | 2015/09/21 | ||
"Captian Cook", his initial landing point on the Big Island.
Green Sand Beach
Main Volcano Laval Pool on the Caldera
Lava pool in the second vent on the southern slopes of the volcano.
Flowing Lava - we were hovering only about 50 feet off this, the heat wash from the lava made the ride bumpy but worth it.
More Flowing Lava, Oozing Out of a Crack
North Shore Cliffs
One of Many Waterfalls
Intrepid Adventurers (us), Post Flight
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