You have not been to Kauai, and you have not taken a helicopter tour? What in blue blazes are you waiting for? This needs to be at the top of everyone’s bucket listing. No fooling, you merely need to get out to the island, guide your tour, and acquire a helicopter journey close to the most gorgeous, enchanting, awe inspiring location on earth. Halt studying this and connect with your journey agent, now!

Okay, I’m a bit biased I in fact flew Kauai excursions for quite a few many years, and in the fascination of full disclosure, I flew for a organization termed Air Kauai. So of study course I have a different point of view on helicopters, and flying close to islands in them. I’m going to try to share with you, dear reader, why it is that you just must fall whatsoever other trip designs you could have, get a ticket to Lihue, and hop aboard a tour helicopter. You can go to Orlando, or Branson, or the Catskills following yr.

Here is why you need to do this, what helicopter enterprise you should contemplate, how considerably it may well expense, what to get alongside, and what time of year and time of day to go. Plus a few extras: what to count on on the helicopter tour, what you may well see, a security overview, and other odds and finishes to make your lifetime-altering experience even much more gratifying. Let’s begin with getting to Kauai, and a little bit of the island’s mystique, commencing, as they say, at the beginning, the origin of Kauai.

Kauai, or the Yard Island, is the furthest (uncovered) northwest island in the Hawaiian chain. I say uncovered due to the fact the Hawaiian Islands are gradually disappearing. No, this is just not a motive to transfer your journey up a number of weeks, loosen up. This is a bit of Hawaiian trivia that some of your tour mates most likely will not likely know. There are in point 127 islands in the Hawaiian chain, not just the 7 you see on a map now–Hawaii, Maui, Molokai, Lanai, Oahu, Kauai, and Niihau. The Hawaiian chain stretches throughout the Pacific for one,200 miles, ending in a very little coral atoll known as Kure, which is, in truth, the pretty to start with Hawaiian Island, courting again just about 100 million decades. As a reference, just one of the Hawaiian Islands is a small place referred to as Halfway which is located, properly, mid way across the chain, about 600 miles Northwest of Oahu.

All the islands are volcanic in origin. Their resource is a volcanic rift in the ocean floor named the Hawaiian Emperor vent, which lies deep beneath drinking water seventy miles south and east of Hawaii, the so-named ‘Big Island’. Above the past 100 million many years this volcanic vent has established all 127 islands*. The islands split the area, create into a land mass, awesome adequately to assistance lifestyle types, and then, thanks to wind, h2o and all-natural corrosive things, they little by little erode away, sinking back again beneath the waves. The islands are also located immediately on a tectonic plate with a northwesterly drift, which can take them off toward Japan and Asia around their lifetimes. Each Hawaiian island basically moves Northwest about fifty percent an inch per yr. Geologists declare that Kure, for instance, will, in a few dozen million years stop up parked around the Kamchatka peninsula.

Kauai by itself is about seven million yrs old. Its certain origin, the volcano that created the land mass named Kauai, is today termed Mount WaiAleAle (Why-Olly-Olly). WaiAleAle sits in the middle of the island. Go to Google Earth and sort that in, and see wherever it normally takes you. Extra about this mountain afterwards, throughout your tour.

Talking of the tour, let’s get on with it. Book your flight into Lihue, the primary city on Kauai. There are direct flights from the west coastline. Most of the helicopter tour operators fly from Lihue airport. Here’s a listing of people corporations, and an overview of each:

Blue Hawaiian: Fantastic firm, fantastic security file, not the least expensive, but perhaps the very best, and this is no time to scrimp. ‘Blue’ flies from Lihue yr spherical, supplying a comprehensive, experienced tour of about an hour. Not approximately ample time to see it all, but plenty of to drop your jaw to the ground. call Blue Hawaiian Helicopters

Safari: Great corporation with a lengthy history on Kauai. Very good security report, and extremely educated pilots. Safari offers some perks other tour corporations do not these kinds of as a video of your journey, out there for a nominal payment. Safari Helicopters Inc.

Island Helicopters: Island is the bargain tour, the no frills, hop aboard and see the island helicopter tour. Great but not good, and, as I explained, this is no time to scrimp. Get in touch with Island Helicopters.

Jack Harter Helicopters: Jack Harter himself was the initial helicopter tour man on Kauai. Jack is the outdated man of helicoptering on island, having at the time flown Frank Sinatra and other Hollywood kinds around numerous motion picture places when ‘ol blue eyes was filming on Kauai a lot of moons ago. Jack Harter Helicopters is the unique. That reported, the business is great, not fantastic, very professional, harmless, with competitive prices and a fantastic tour. Harter offers two different aircraft based on your curiosity–the AStar for a regular, comfy, tour, and a very little chook flown with out doorways for individuals who tote pricey cameras and are, by God, likely to use them. Jack Harter Helicopters Inc.

There are other organizations to opt for from, but all those higher than are the kinds I suggest. Here is the rest of the story: what to assume, what to acquire (and not consider), pricing, weather conditions, safety, when to go, and numerous other factors.

When you arrive for your tour you’ll be given a basic safety briefing per FAA rules, just like on the plane. You will learn about making use of a variety of protection merchandise, and be specified a quick overview of your tour. Then you will have to stage on a scale. Sorry, people, the airlines are permitted to use normal weights, helicopter operators need to use genuine. And of Robinson’s social media , some providers do cost further previously mentioned a certain body weight. It can be for plane operating parameters, consequently for your protection and others’. You will have to pay out of course, and the payment construction is dependent on so quite a few variables I would not get into facts. Suffice to say that a tour will value anywhere from $a hundred seventy five.00 apiece up to $three hundred,00, as I say, dependent on booking arrangements, business, discount rates and so on. Fork out it, you can never regret it. Soon after the business visit you will be taken to the helicopter where you may fulfill your pilot and ground crew.

At the flight line you may obtain an comprehensive safety briefing from the pilot on exiting the plane, use of flotation devices, intercom procedure, headsets and numerous other safety and nice to know items. Depending on the company you decide on, you may most likely board the plane ‘hot’, that is with the motor in operation, blades turning. Just pay back interest to your ground crew, and no concerns. One be aware of caution–do not go in the vicinity of the tail of the helicopter, at any time. Normally keep in the pilot’s line of vision. The tail rotor is NOT your friend.