Final CLIFFS OF MOLOKAI by Michael Van Dorn

FINAL > Michael Van Dorn

:In 1974, a few of us Oahu flyers who were accustomed to jumping off the 1,300-foot cliff at Makapu’u in our standard rogallos, got the bright idea to go over and launch off the giant sea cliffs of Molokai, the island between Oahu and Maui. The cliffs there are almost twice as high as those at Makapu’u. We planned to soar for miles along the spectacular scenic cliffs and then land on the black sand beach at Kalaupapa; at the time, there was still a leprosy colony in the area.

Flying Molokai had its problems and dangers. It’s a straight down, do-or-die cliff launch with no roads in or out. We would have to hike all the way back up along a narrow, zigzag mule trail. Also, the Molokai cliffs face north; therefore, the usual NE tradewinds don’t come straight up—it’s a crosswind launch. Also, visitors to the leper colony were rare, and we didn’t consider that perhaps we weren’t allowed to just drop in.

Despite the challenges, we (Jim Nurse, Bob Thornburg, Russell Smoot, Jeff Land, and I) shipped our gliders over to Molokai. Poised at the top with a fantastic view, we paused. Who would be the brave wind dummy, and who would be last to tackle launch alone with no wireman? Jim stepped forward, and Russell gave him a nice cliff edge launch. We could see the air was smooth, so we followed. The wind was a bit cross on launch but not too strong, so we didn’t have any issues. But because of the light wind cross to the cliff band, there wasn’t much lift, and we couldn’t stay up.

It was still a beautiful flight, and we all landed safely and happily on the nice, long black sand beach. Upon landing, we were confronted by a large Hawaiian man pointing a shotgun at us— to him, this was some kind of weird invasion as he had never heard of hang gliding before. (Hang gliding was relatively new at that time, especially on sleepy little Molokai).

It turned out that he was the sheriff of the colony. After some fast-talking, apologizing, and assuring him we wouldn’t fly again without a special permit, he relaxed. He was a friendly guy and even took us on an extended tour of the colony in his Jeep.

The trip was great, but due to it’s remoteness few people have flown the majestic sea cliffs of Molokai since.