It would have been so easy to just book with Hawai’ian Air or Island Air but with a sense of adventure I decided to take the local commuter flight using Go ! Mokulele Airlines and travel on their Cessna TurboProp 9 passenger commuter plane. We thought that we were on an adventure. Because they use little planes, everything had to be weighed before we loaded. We had to put our bags on the scale, our backpack, and then ourselves with our weights being tallied on the passenger manifest. To avoid embarrassments they weighed each of us as we carried our carry on luggage/backpacks. The plane also had to be loaded by weight priority to balance the planes centre of gravity. The flight captain looked at the manifest and decided our seat positions which were assigned as we walked out on the tarmac towards our waiting plane.
WOW, flights were grounded in December, 2011
We looked upon this alternative as an adventure and luckily everything went as planned and we left and arrived in Kona on time. Now that I am preparing this post I find that we are probably one of the few who have had a good experiences. I did a google review of Mokulele and they are all horrible. Bad customer service, cancelled flights and then I find out that their planes were recently grounded due to parts or possibly maintenance problems.
Then there is this political mess of Mesa Airlines and their takeover of Aloha Airlines and the messy aftermath which has the locals avoiding them like the plague, and also their Bankruptcy earlier this year until they found a new investor to bail them out.
Remember what that white plane with red lettering looks like
Looking back and knowing what I know now, It was a REAL ADVENTURE the magnitude of which, we were largely unaware. I am glad the flight was uneventful and all went well and we arrived unscathed and will live to breathe another day.
Hop aboard and join us on this Uneventful Flight. I hope it has all of its nuts and bolts this time
Mrs Skoot still thinks that we were being adventurous, I mean . . . ignorance is bliss
Interesting. Around here, I was told that all charter flights over water need to be using multi-engine planes. But my information is about 30 years old and maybe it was just the operator or his insurance rules. Maybe Hawaii has different rules (I doubt it) or my information is wrong (more likely)
ReplyDeleteYou're right, ignorance is bliss!
I would like to take a helicopter on a tour of the islands. I've been told it's a breathtaking view. Thanks for sharing your video with us.
ReplyDeleteBobskoot the Adventurer... our eye in the sky tour guide.
:)
Wow, glad everything went okay on the flight. Good thing it wasn't grounded while you were there and also that you didn't read the reviews before you went.
ReplyDeleteI think you had a grand adventure. More so by what you didn't know.
Richard:
ReplyDeleteI like your idea of multi-engines, esp over water. Lucky thing I didn't do google reviews before we booked
Lady R:
You have to be on the lookout for sulphur clouds from the volcano, and check the weather forecasts. It is always raining somewhere on the island. Tour operators don't like to tell you that you can't see anything. Fixed wing is much cheaper than helicopter
Trobairitz:
Lucky thing I found out all this stuff after we came back, and I was looking for info to post, otherwise we would have taken the jet.