Flying Without Wings

The first time I experienced the magic of helicopter flying was in 1995, when I tagged along with my boyfriend, a field biologist, to his camp high on the wild slopes of Haleakalā. As we buckled ourselves into the sturdy working helicopter, he leaned over and told the pilot, “Take it easy; it’s her first time.” I assumed we’d taxi like a plane and gradually climb into the blue Maui sky. Instead, we lifted right up, alien-abduction-style, then shot off over the clouds to the high mountain slopes: a turbocharged hummingbird. Ephemeral wisps of cloud swirled around the chopper skids. The doors were off, and I leaned out a bit when we descended for landing, the ground rising to meet us and the skids coming to rest gently on the soggy meadow like a kiss.

I was hooked.

In the years since, I’ve shamelessly begged and bribed rides with friends and colleagues working in remote locations that required helicopters to access. While riding along on a search for a lost monk seal, I accidentally flew to Moloka‘i because the pilot was running out of fuel. I once flew to a glacier in Alaska and had lunch on the ice, the trip courtesy of a tour guide. I rode along with a filmmaker who was simulating the experience of being a golf ball; we looped over a Mākena golf course until I was as green as the greens, but happy even to be dizzy in the air.

There are two common denominators to all of these flights:

I am thrilled to pieces every time.

I always want to go back in time and learn to be a pilot. So “Take a helicopter intro lesson” has been #1 on my bucket list for a long, long time. Imagine my glee when I was assigned to do just that for Maui Nō Ka ‘Oi.

Lessons with Go Fly Maui begin with significant study time on the ground, as pilot/instructor Nick Moran leads students through an intensive immersion in everything from the physics of air flow, to the preflight check that looks at each inch of the aircraft before the key is turned.

Nick Moran looks exactly like a pilot as envisioned by Central Casting, with a wide smile and steady blue-eyed gaze. We meet at the security gate near the hangar where he and wife Magen park their aircraft, and stroll over to the light and trim Robinson R44. The Morans started Go Fly Maui, the island’s only helicopter flight school, in July of 2018. They also take up photographers who want to work from the air and do things that drones can’t do.