Happy New Year! (and what’s your resolution?)

by philg

Happy New Year to everyone.

What’s your resolution this year?

Mine is to travel more. Travel is where my brain picks up new ideas.

First trip: Big Island of Hawaii (visit Mauna Loa Helicopters) and then Maui, February 1-10. Would anyone like to meet and talk about helicopters?

11 thoughts on “Happy New Year! (and what’s your resolution?)”

  1. To spend the $350 for a female wrestling session. It’s cheaper than marrying someone who still has her health.

  2. 1. To stay out of helicopters another year. As stated here before, helicoptering is not really flying.

    2. To stay out of airports as much as possible. Reinforced by 2016 holiday experience of almost missing London-Atlanta flight after arriving on curb 2 hr 15 min in advance. My backpack is apparently on UK no-fly list – they imaged it at least 6 times, unpacked/sorted/sniffed 3 times, patted 78 yr old me twice, never told me what they were looking for. Cost the UK GDP a couple of hundred as we raced past all the airport shops with residual pound notes in our pocket, no time to spend. Meticulous and Indian-ethnicity agent who could have been measuring me for a bespoke suit, hard to get angry with him.

  3. Just left Maui and now on Oahu. From Maui, we took an awesome helicopter tour of northern Maui and then Molokai. Highly recommend see the biggest sea cliffs in the world and the amazing coral reef from the air. We can compare notes on 2/12.

  4. Can I strongly recommend hiking down to the Waipio Valley?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waipio_Valley

    As always, please check locally the status of tourist/native relations before doing anything off the beaten trail.

    I would echo David’s recommendation to fly along the sea cliffs of Molokai.

    Excellent timing. Calving season + everything will be extra-dramatic for being in the middle of winter.

    Enjoy.

  5. Self-improvement, diet and improved health, each of which is mild enough to be attainable with better living. (Well, let’s see how the dieting goes.)

    But since there are many pilots here, I thought I’d also ask about a potential new hobby: Any experience, wisdom and plain good advice regarding ultra-lights?

  7. Two goals for 2017:
    1. Learn more, always. From learning to fly a drone to improve public speaking to a new language.
    2. Find a way to move beyond the category labeled by Phil as ‘wage slave’. It’s been very comfortable but it is becoming increasingly clear that there has to be more than that in life 🙂

  8. I’d love to meet and talk about helicopters, but I won’t be in Hawaii then! I would like to hear your opinion of using Mauna Loa to get my PPL(H) (I’m currently a fixed-wing pilot). It seems like a great place to learn. The hard decision may be whether to go to their Oahu school or their Big Island school.

  9. Chris: I finished my CFI over a couple of January weeks at Mauna Loa and it is a great school. The Big Island operation is the original and probably a more exciting place to hang out. I would love to tell you to come to East Coast Aero Club instead, but perhaps you find the Kona weather more inspiring than Boston’s!

  11. Maui – Java Jazz and the south road to Hana. Briefly convinced a friend that the Stupa in Paia was a Tibetan phone booth.

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