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Published: January 28th 2011
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9512F
Cessna 172SP January 24th was a big day in history, it is the day of my birth. I decided to do something big this year. On Wednesday January 20th I completed all requirements to be certified as a private pilot, single engine land. Today I rented a plane on Oahu and Kim and I flew around the island. The day started out a little more leisurely than the our previous days, we slept in until about 8 am. I had a bit of flight planning to do so I to started that while enjoying a cup of tea and listing to the ocean through the open windows and sliding door. The plane was scheduled for 11:00 am so we took off for Honolulu airport about 10:15. Once there we finished all of the necessary paperwork and headed out to the plane. After completing the preflight inspection we took off in our Cessna 172SP, 9512F; that is niner five one two foxtrot. After being cleared to enter Bravo airspace we headed East at 1,500 along H1 interstate before turning south to follow the coast. Kim took photos while I flew. It was a beautiful day out with little traffic. After I changed frequencies, when
cleared by HNL tower, it was pretty much smooth sailing all the way around the island. We cruised at about 1,000 feet the entire time, I wanted Kim close enough to be able to take pictures of the island(s). After the check out flight from the day before with Jelica the communications were easy and I even did a pretty good job with the pronunciations. The ones like Rabbit Island and Chinaman's Hat are easy, it is more like Kaneohe and Haliewa that get me.
The flight was just under an hour and a half and pretty wonderful, great wind conditions, good visibility, low traffic, and most importantly without incident. Not knowing the scenic surrounding, I asked the tower for VFR vectors instead of landmark directions and they were able to bring me right into my downwind leg for runway 4 left; that was after getting cleared to enter Bravo airspace first of course. Securing the aircraft took us a few minutes and then we headed inside to pay and put the key and books away. Jelica was working and I let her know everything went great, I thanked her and told her I would be back.
Kim
found a GroupOn for JJ's Bistro before we came on our trip and we decided to use that as my birthday meal. JJ's is located in the cute little Honolulu neighborhood of Kaimuki, there is an orchid shop/small grocery just around the corner. I was completely satisfied with the food, ambiance, and cost. The service was a bit on the slow side but no biggie I was in no hurry. The Lamb Wellington was definitely the stand out of the four courses. The place has amazing desserts and they are in a case when one enters the bistro. I elected to go with their signature dessert the chocolate pyramid; Kim must have told them it was my birthday as "Happy Birthday" was written in chocolate sauce on the serving dish, a single candle, and they came out singing. Kind of cute. The chocolate pyramid is a funky little chocolate cake with a chocolate mousse/ganache filling dusted with cocoa powder, it was excellent. Overall a great little pick on Kim's part.
After our late lunch we decided to hustle up to North Shore's Sunset beach to... you guessed it. The drive through central Oahu was pretty beautiful in its own
right, although it lacks the ocean views until the end. What starts as suburbia coming out of Honolulu soon breaks into a great view as one gains altitude. We passed cornfields, the Dole pineapple plantation, and through a handful of small communities. We can down and drove through the little surf town of Haliewa, before coming up on Sunset beach. The sunset was beautiful, Kim and I watched surfers on the waves of North Shore as the sun set, and taking a few photos before driving back to Waimanalo along the East Coast of Oahu.
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Jody
non-member comment
Wow! That's awesome! Amazing and beautiful pics!