Aloaha. Great word. In Hawaiian it means hello, goodbye, love. Mahalo is Hawaiian for thank you. I can’t pronounce either without thinking of Joe and Gail Kiefer, hosts of our recent IFFR Flyabout. IFFR members and spouses from three continents toured the beautiful islands following the RI International Convention in Osaka.

The fellowship with new and old friends was as wonderful as the stunning venues. From Oahu came Joe and Gail Keifer; from dry and wet sides of the big island Steve and Joanna Bobko-Millenaar and my old friends Cheryl and Eliot Merk joined us for bits of the tour. Alan and Maisie Grady came from New South Wales, Australia. From Europe, Scots Alisma Clark and new World IFFR President Angus Clark, Belgium pilots Philippe Godfroid and intercontinental explorer Eric Charlez, and. Swedes Marianne and Christer Liljenstrand . Americans included aryl and Brian Anderson, Beverly Fogle, Fannie and Buddy Hall, Diana and Phil Livingston, Shirley and Peter Moore, Greta and Bert Vos. Texas sent outgoing IFFR World President Tony Watson, wife Jane and children Ann, Nancy and Peter. Texas Rotarian Lynn Miller brought herself two pilots, daughter Tonia and hubby Rocky( a serious enthusiast, this guy’s got three sailboats and three airplanes at home). And Texan Cynthia Graves brought her chief pilot, your writer. This was truly a great group with whom to share stories about life and flying.

Cynthia and I arrived in Honolulu a couple days early to get checked out in the 172SP Bev Fogle and arranged for the three of us and to explore Oahu. Hiking the north shore and snorkeling in Hanauma Bay eased the jetlag before I frightened by 172 checkout instructor and caused a north shore sailplane instructor to seriously question his chose profession. Reuniting with many dear friends, a trip to Pearl Harbor with Peter and Shirley Moore.

After briefing the morning of and evening before with our CFII host Joe, we launched from Honolulu International on Sunday, 20May. Bev and I elected a photo stop on Lania enroute to Kona. Great snorkeling I discovered just of our King Kamiemea Hotel. Steve Bobkp and Joanna hosted a wonderful reception and dinner that night at their magnificent oceanfront home. The following day we toured Hawaii (the BIG island) by bus. The tour was superb and informative, the bus fellowship great. Our group photo of the trip was taken at Rainbow Falls just outside Hilo, a city which became special to me when I first saw it after ten hours and forty minutes overwater Hilo now is most special as the home of IFFR member Eliot Merk and his wonderful Cheryl. The big island included the southernmost point in the US, the bay of Capitan Cook’s execution by unhappy Hawiians, stops at the active volcano Kilauea, and great views of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa from Waimea. We explore traditional Hawaiin culture at Puuhonua O Honaunau Historical Park and climbed through the Turston lava tube.

After a very full day of circumnavigating the island by bus, the next day was free for individual recreation. I dove with the Millers and snorkeled a bit. After the day of rest, we again circumnavigated Hawaii, this time in little airplanes. The tour two days before was a great orientation to our flight down the west and up the east coast of the BIG island. We
carefully avoided simultaneous use of the same airspace over the active lava flow from Kilauea, which spilled into the steaming Pacific beneath our aircraft and camera. Around Hilo and up the north shore, we passed dozens of spectacular waterfalls before a brief overwater to the east end of Maui, the site of Lindberg’s last year and burial site near Hana. Continuing past Haleakala volcano we hugged Oahu’s north shore to land in Kahului. Time for rest at the Maui Coast Hotel left us ready to bus to the Old Lahauina Luau, which provided a tremendous meal, traditional show, and welcome to Maui.

The bus the next morning, Thursday, went by the airport where a few of us offloaded to do our own Maui tour, meeting the bus in Hana after it wound past hundreds of waterfalls on the north coast of Maui. We
fliers toured the moon-like landscape of the huge Haleakala volcano from an appropriate altitude before lunch. The flight was repeated after lunch for members who had bussed to the Lindberg gravesite, where
many a flying Rotarian was photographed above the aviation pioneer’s resting place..

Friday brought more great weather, the trade winds blowing us first to Kalaupapa below the towering cliffs and waterfalls of the north shore of Molokai. A picnic lunch was followed by an exclusive tour of the
Kalaupapa National Historical Park, site of leper colony run for years by the legendary Father Damien, who succumbed to leprosy after serving those exiled to this remote peninsula for years. Our tour in the rattletrap bus was conducted by a knowledgeable former inhabitant of the colony, himself afflicted by leprosy. A brief overwater jaunt that afternoon returned us to Honolulu, many of our aircraft taking the long route to circumnavigate the modest-sized Oahu before returning to Honolulu International.

Saturday left us on the ground for a group trip to Kaneohe Bay, where we feasted on board our tourist yacht, explored the sand bars and snorkelled the reef. By now we had become accustomed to living and
playing in paradise. Monday took back to our aircraft for a little longer water trip to the legendary beauty of Kauai. We toured this unbelievable island with out most knowledgeable tour guide yet, from Princeville and Hanalae Bay in the north, circling the wettest place on earth, Mt. Waialeale on our return past seascapes and waterfalls, to our aircraft, where, for many of us, the most spectacular tour of Kauai began, as we circled south around this made-for-movies island, past Waimea Canyon to the legendary Na Pali Coast, where clouds kept us from seeing the cliff tops. An IFR pop-up to VFR on top brought us back to Honolulu.

Monday the flyabout concluded with with a tour of the USS Arizona Memorial and the National Cemetery of the Pacific as well as the USS Missouri for almost the entire group. Having seen some of this before with Shirley and Peter, I joined Bev in putting a few more hours on our 172 and returning for another day on Kauai and a drive up Waimea Canyon until we stood overlooking the Na Pali coast.

We concluded the day with a banquet at our host hotel, the Princess Kaiulani in Waikiki. It was quite difficult to say goodbye to all the friends we have come to love and admire in the course of this and many other flyabouts. I never fail to learn something new and helpful from each of these remarkable men and women. Monday evening we toasted our incoming and outgoing international presidents, Angus Clark and Tony Watson. Words in English fail to convey our thanks for what we had enjoyed thanks to a year of very hard work by Joe Keifer. I speak for us all in saying to our dear Hawaiian friend, “Mahalo, Joe. Aloaha.”

.Mike Graves IFFR #L037