Exploring the Hawaiian Islands with Air Maui Helicopters

My name is Richie Olston. I'm Director of Operations for Air Maui Helicopters. We do tours of Hana and Haleakala and also of West Maui and Molokai. West Maui and Molokai is our most popular tour. For me, I've never flown anywhere else so flying in Hawaii is all that I know. I've flown here for 52 years and it's a beautiful place to fly. I'm for sure the longest flying tour pilot on Maui, maybe in the world, I'm not certain about that, but for flying for 52 years so I've accumulated over 30,000 hours. We're using the A-Star. We have all of our A-Stars are B-2s so we have plenty of power and it's great visibility for our guests on board to view the beautiful scenery that we have here. You know, I love flying the A-Star. It's very comfortable for me as a pilot. I have my own seat. I'm not crowded by any passengers. The visibility for the passengers is great. Even in the back seat, you know, you have a good view even if you're in the two middle seats. It's quiet, comfortable, has plenty of power for our needs and the routes that we go and very dependable. A-Star has great tail rotor authority so when we go up into the mountains and we slow down or hover by a waterfall, it's not difficult to control or do a 360 degree turn. You know, even in the windy conditions that we have here, very responsive and just a real pleasure to fly. So 6 a.m., our highest time aircraft. I'm not sure actually of the date that it entered service. That was here when I came to work here already. Originally, it was a B-A and we recently converted it to a B-2 and that aircraft has over 38,000 hours, more hours on it than any other A-Star flying in the world at this time. The conversion was done at our operation in the mainland and then it was shipped here and we did that so we could have the increased horsepower, the engine conversion, and also for the increased gross weight. So it's now 4961 is the gross weight of that aircraft so it makes it much more convenient for us in passenger compatibility and we never have a problem with gross weight. You have some repeat customers but most every time when people get in the helicopter, it's their first time that they've gone flying. So we meet people from all over the world in various places and get to show them the beauty and it's great to watch the expressions on their faces as we go up into the mountains and the waterfalls and sometimes, you know, it brings tears to people's eyes. So that's a great joy in sharing the beauty of the island with the guests that we fly.