It was an idyllic, sunny and typical day in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii on 9-13-1977. I had just finished a flight lesson with Tanaka, a private pilot student from Japan, when a phone call from my friend Albert, on the Hilo side of the island of Hawaii, alerted me to a volcanic eruption at Volcano National Park. Floyd, another flight instructor, and I grabbed a camera, a bottle or gin (more on the gin later), and were airborne within minutes. This was a first for both of us. Volcano’s no longer exist back home in Minnesota. It was a 50 minute flight around the south end of the island and back north to Volcano National Park. As usual the stunning landscape on the island of Hawaii goes from black lava rock to green jungle, and the Pacific Ocean crashing on the mostly black rock and occasional beach of black, green, and pink sand. Rounding South Point, the most southern part of the United States, we could see ahead 50 miles that something was happening at the park. There was steam, smoke, and fire spewing from the side of Mauna Loa. As we approached the area in our 4 seat Cessna 172, Floyd said, “Pele is blowing her top”. Pele is the mythical volcano goddess and once aroused can only be pacified with sacrificial jugs of gin dropped into the eruption. As we closed the gap between Pele and our small plane, we could see old lava runs and craters from the past. Sugar cane fields, avocado, and macadamia nut farms cover the side of Mauna Loa.
Our little Cessna was looking at the Devil himself, shooting a stream of lava 600’ in the air. Downhill from the eruption, a river of molten lava oozed toward the ocean. The fields of sugar cane faded to black lava fields and Volcano National Park was now below us. As far as we could see, there were no other aircraft in the area other than the volcanologists and their helicopters. They had landed and were doing their work collecting samples and data, a daily occurrence, even without an eruption.
We set up our course to fly between the mountain, Mauna Loa, and Kilauea, the volcano. Kilauea actually looks like it is part of the mountain, but research has shown that Kilauea actually has its own lava lake separate from the string of ancient volcano’s that make up the state of Hawaii. Over time all of the islands of Hawaii rose up from the sea. South of the island of Hawaii, less than 100 miles is the newest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is still hundreds of feet below the surface but building.
How to approach a volcano? We slowed our airspeed and flew up to the towering, spewing “Devil” and threw open the window. The roaring of the exploding gas and the heat instantly told us how stupid this was and we were going to die. For a few seconds, I envisioned the tires on fire and the Cessna exploding. I knew something was going to burst into flames. Lurching away I checked the instruments and the tires. We survived our encounter with Pele. I think the gin helped. There was one casualty. My full beard was singed and my face was embarrassing red. The eruption lasted for 18 days. I flew tourists for a look see for two weeks until the ash was so thick that planes were grounded. There was tremendous relief that the eruption ended when it did. Today Kilauea Volcano, the World’s most active, has been erupting since January 1983. Published every Wednesday at least.
