When I'm not in the water assisting with open water students, and if the weather is nice, I like to fly. If you've read any of my previous posts, you'll know I'm into all sorts of adventurous endeavors. Anyhow I was able to find a small flight school/air charter service here on island that was reasonably priced. Micronesian Air.
http://www.guamcell.net/~mm/index.htm
My friend and scuba instructor Wada-San who I did my PADI advanced open-water certification with is also a private pilot and he introduced me to Micronesian Air. Micronesian Air is a small charter operation that caters primarily to giving aerial tours to Japanese tourists here on Guam. It's a very nice outfit with bilingual staff and a cozy air conditioned office next to the control tower at Won Pat International Airport. They have 3 aircraft: 2 Cessna 172s and 1 Cessna 152. After a brief check-out flight, where their flight instructor evaluated my piloting skills before giving me the keys to take it solo or with passengers, I called up some new friends that I had met and asked if they would be interested in splitting the costs for an hour sightseeing flight around the island.
I made two flights. The first one was with my flight instructor friend Chris who's half Japanese and friend Iree from Palau. The second was with another friend of mine Melanie from Texas and one of her friends.
If anyone is interested the prices for 1 hour are as follows:
4 people at $40 each.
3 people at $50 each.
2 people at $75 each.
The more people, the more fun it is!
So anyway I had lent my camera to my passengers to take photographs with and here are some of the nice views:
Agana Tower.
Cessna 172 N80328, the bird that I'm flying the most. 1977 M model, leather interior with the nice big 180hp swinging the prop. Much better performance than the 1969 K model that I was flying back home in NJ with only 150hp. This one is operating under the auto fuel supplemental type certificate. While not as nice as running on straight 100 octane low-lead avgas, they save money despite not being able to to lean out the fuel mixture at altitude. But it's Guam, we rarely hang out higher than 3,000ft above sea level.
Preflight checking the electrics and verifying that my fuel gauges agree with my visual inspection of the tanks.
We share the air here with the "heavies." Waiting for a 737 to land before I can take off.
"Balls to the wall!"
Left turn off the departure end of the runway heading towards Tumon. Two Lover's Point in the distance.
After a left turn from the runway, we head south to follow the coastline.
The capital, Hagatna, "aa-gaan-aa."
Fish Eye, at Piti. At the end of the pier is an underwater observation deck where tourists come to watch a diver pose for photographs and feed the fish. I applied for this position but the current guy won't quit so I'll have to wait or try something else. Right before the end of the pier is "Seawalker," a popular Japanese tourist attraction where they where special bubbles over their heads and are lowered down into the water to watch the marine life. The reef here is spectacular and very shallow so the true colors brought out. I spend a lot of time here freediving (no air tank.) with my camera and trying to capture the awesome colors. The Japanese love to wave at me through the windows too and try to get me to stay down long enough for a photo. My apnea skills are no where near as good as seasoned free divers so I can only really manage 20-30 seconds at 35ft before I shoot to the surface for a breath. One of my tasks in order to become a divemaster is to map this site.
Apra Harbor. The main shipping entrance for Guam. The U.S. Navy has a base on the far side of the harbor mostly for submarines. In the middle of the Harbor at around 80-130ft deep lies the double shipwreck of the S.S. Cormoran and Tokai Maru. The Cormoran was a German freighter scuttled by her crew during the first world war and the Tokai Maru was a Japanese freighter sunk by American torpedo during the second world war. Both wrecks lie side by side and you can dive down and touch both at the same time.
Orote Point. This used to be a Japanese air base during the war and today is U.S. Naval Base, Guam. A couple miles to the right of the peninsula is "Blue Hole," a giant limestone and coral tube that has a top at 60' and bottoms out at around 130.' It's one of the most popular dives to do on Guam. In the foreground on the tip or Orote is Spanish Steps which is an amazing snorkeling spot. Only accessible by land if you're military or accompanied by someone military otherwise you must get there by boat.
Submarine with SEAL pod on it's back.
Base housing.
Chris and I.
Agat Marina. MDA's dive boats leave from here.
Iree from Palau who took all the photos. Her first time in a small aircraft and first time using an SLR!
Approaching the southernmost tip of the island. Cocos Island which is a tiny strip of land just of the south of Guam.
Cocos. There is a small daytime only resort that you can visit. The reef is long, wide and flat and has lots of fan coral as well as white tip sharks, dolphins, sea turtles.
Leaving Cocos. You can see where the difference in depths are. Lighter blue is shallow and the darker blue is deep. It leads all the way to the Marianas Trench, the deepest known place on the planet. Also there is a fairly strong current and it carries all the way to the Philippines.
Southern Guam.
Here's where I decided to go low over the waves. Also we had to get lower since the Air Force was busy that day and I already had to clear the way for fighter jets and a C-130. Since the south is not considered a densely populated area we can fly as low as we like provided we are at least 500ft linear away from any person, man-made object or vehicle. Here we are at 200ft above the water at a brisk 120mph. It's a lot of fun.
Incredible color over Talafofo Bay.
I wonder if this is one of NORAD's or NOAA's tracking stations?
Leo's Palace one of the most expensive condos on Island.
On final approach to land on runway 6 Left at Won Pat Int'l.
The author at the controls right before touchdown.
Second flight for the day. Melanie flies right seat.
One stoked aviatrix!
Tumon Sands. Guam's own Waikiki sort of.
Tumon.
Clouds over the hills.
