Great Hikes on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai %blog_title%

An Unsafe Industry

Saturday, Oct 1st, 2005 by Andy | 1 Comment
Filed under: Activism, Helicopters

The investigation into the last helicopter crash is progressing with some twists and turns. While the investigators were originally cautious not to rule out any mechanical malfunction, the investigation is now centered on pilot error, some conflicting accounts of the accident, and some blame.

Except for having a surviving pilot trying to shed the blame, the situation is very similar to last year’s fatal crash. In that case, the pilot who was also 2 months-new to Kauai flew into severe weather and crashed in to a mountain. Neither pilot was certified for IFR (Instrument Flight Rules), which give the training and experience to handle low-visibility weather conditions. For some reason not yet reported on, neither pilot chose not to avoid the clouds or the rain, which is feasible with our localized weather. I suspect the pressure to complete full tours and not interrupt the “rotation” (sequence of tours) had something to do with it.

In researching the record of helicopter accidents, I found all the data readily available from the National Transportation Safety Bureau. I have put the information into the table below, but the summary for Kauai is that there was a fatal crash in clear weather into a mountainside in 2003, and another in bad weather with an inexperienced pilot in 1998.

Current Synopsis	PDF Report(s)	Event Date	Location	Company	Make & Model	Regist. Number	Severity
Preliminary	Preliminary	9/23/2005	Haena, Kauai	Heli USA	Aerospatiale AS 350BA	N355NT	Fatal (3)
Preliminary	Preliminary	9/24/2004	Kalaheo, Kauai	Bali Hai	Bell 206B	N16849	Fatal (5)
Preliminary	Preliminary	7/23/2003	Waialeale, Kauai	Jack Harter	Bell 206B	N37741	Fatal (5)
Preliminary	Preliminary	6/15/2003	Volcano, Big Island	Paradise	McDonnell Douglas 369D	N4493M	Fatal (4)
Probable Cause	Factual Probable Cause	7/21/2000	Kahului, Maui	Blue Hawaiian	Aerospatiale AS 355F1	N510TG	Fatal (7)
Probable Cause	Factual Probable Cause	6/25/1998	Mt. Waialeale, Kauai	Ohana	Eurocopter AS-350-BA	N594BK	Fatal (6)

Unfortunately, the factual and probable cause reports aren’t finalized until 1 to 3 years after the preliminary report. So we’ll have to wait for the final word. However, the undisputed fact is that an average of more than 4 people every year die in helicopter accidents on Kauai recently, a much worse figure than on any of the other islands. I don’t have the number of annual helicopter passengers, but knowing that the same tourists also drive rental cars and have less fatalities in traffic, I can assert that it is much safer to see Kauai by car.

Update: Added preliminary NTSB report for latest accident and company names to the table.

I Want to Be a Travel Writer

Friday, Sep 30th, 2005 by Andy | Leave a Comment
Filed under: Blogging, Journalism, Kalalau, Reviews

I’ve always wanted to be a travel writer: who wouldn’t want to go off and have adventures, meet people, research interesting stories, and then get paid for it. That is until I realized everybody else wanted to do that, and the few who were good enough to get paid weren’t making a living. But I still like to read travel articles, learn about new places, and secretly entertain the thought that maybe I could’ve gone to the same place and written a better article.

Well, that finally happened. The article in question is “Hawaii: Searching For Koolau The Leper”, on a sleek travel website whose name I can’t even pronounce. So now I will become a travel writer critic.

Overall, the article follows a classic recipe: travel to an interesting place, search for some historical figure, and find echos of the past by interviewing the locals. The problem is that you need to do some historical research, and that takes time away from your working vacation. I know one should never let the facts get in the way of a good story, but in this case, they got in the way of my reading.

The story of Koolau the Leper was made famous by Jack London who heard a second- or third-hand account while traveling in Hawaii. So it was with great interest that I read the story told by his widow in The Kauai Papers, published by the Kauai Historical Society. Too bad our travel writer never found this credible account while he was at the local library, because it clearly states that Koolau and his wife came from Waimea, and hiked into Kalalau down the steep cliffs at the back of the valley on a trail that no longer exists.

Cliff at the back of Kalalau valley, viewed from the Pihea trail

So the entire following-in-his-footsteps premise of the article is undermined, and the author appears for what he really is: just another tourist. Yes, the Kalalau trail is hard, but it is nowhere near as hard as what Koolau and his wife actually had to do. If the writer had climbed that cliff, which might be feasible or might be suicide depending on whom you ask, then I would’ve been impressed. As it is, I think he needs to search for another way to pay for his vacations.

Up the Wailua River

Tuesday, Sep 27th, 2005 by Andy | Leave a Comment
Filed under: Fauna, Kayaking

Over the weekend, we went exploring with our Kayak on the Wailua river. We launced from the beach, right between the bridges. First, we paddled upstream on the really wide part of the river. At the branch, we took the left side, which is the South Fork. A little ways futher we landed at the Fern Grotto, about 2.2 miles (3.5 km) upstream from the beach. Although the entire river is a State Park, the only way to see the Fern Grotto is with a paid tour on Smith’s Boats or by private kayak. Rental kayaks are not supposed to land there so that Smith’s has the monopoly, and they don’t make it easy for private kayaks to land either.

I don’t think I’d ever pay money to ride a boat with a bunch of tourists to see the Fern Grotto, but it makes an interesting side trip to kayaking. And since it was late Sunday afternoon, we had the place to ourselves. There used to be more ferns and a tropical garden along the paved path to the Grotto, but I hear they were all damanged in hurricane Iniki and poorly maintained since. Right now, they are doing some major work on the structures, and it looks even worse in the meantime. However, the ferns are growing back and the grotto itself looks nice with water dripping down in front, as long as you can ignore the metal railaing and cement path.

We then paddled another half-mile (1km) up the South Fork, nearly halfway to Wailua Falls from the Grotto. We went through another narrow spot in the river, and then the scenery opened up with some pastures and house at the bottom of a wide river valley. The river got shallower and faster, so we had to work to paddle upstream. At the point where we had to turn around, some cows were watching us curiously.

These pastures are inholdings in the state park, incidentally where the powerhouse is being proposed for the Wailua Falls Hydroelectic Project that I argued against previously. You can see the distance we paddled on the map at that link.

Papaya Sunrise

Tuesday, Sep 27th, 2005 by Andy | Leave a Comment
Filed under: Flora, Weather

This must be the sunrise color that sunrise papayas are named for. Click on the photo to see the larger panorama.

Helicopter Crash

Tuesday, Sep 27th, 2005 by Andy | 2 Comments
Filed under: Activism, Helicopters, Weather

Last Friday, a tourist helicopter with 5 passengers and the pilot crashed into the ocean in bad weather, about a half-mile offshore of Haena, on the north shore. Three of the passengers died, while two others were rescued and the pilot swam ashore.

According to the newspaper, the wreckage was recovered from the ocean yesterday, and today some of the rescuers and the investigators released some more details of the accident. The front page photos don’t seem to be archived with the stories above, so I scanned them for the record:

Image source: The Garden Island print edition, September 26, 2005