Maui helicopter ride recommendations

[ER_Hopeful]

Wanted to do a heli ride with the family, seems lot of choices, ie circle around island, or do the crater, or west Maui plus Molokai, which one?
Door on or door off, seems door off better, right? Better view?

 

[Souschef]

How many people are we talking about? I took a 3 island fixed wing flight with Maui Aviators.

 

[Koolau]

Do your best to check the safety record.

I don't know if the fixed-wing type tours are still available, but they tend to be a lot cheaper but can't fly as close to the ground. One thing to consider is the video that may be available of your actual flight.

Have fun and bring LOTS of money.

 

[skyking1]

How many people are we talking about? I took a 3 island fixed wing flight with Maui Aviators.

Better bang for the dollar IMO. If I were on Maui I'd want to go see the Na pali on the big island and the active volcanoes.
That north shore is really spectacular on the big island. Not like Kauai, but very nice.

 

[Ian S]

We went with Blue Hawaiian on the Big Island. They have a camera setup where your entire trip including commentary and questions by the passengers is recorded and then available for purchase after the flight. That's a definite advantage IMHO.

 

[ER_Hopeful]

How many people are we talking about? I took a 3 island fixed wing flight with Maui Aviators.

4 adults

 

[Drake3287]

It's funny, this question comes up a lot on the Trip Advisor Hawaii forum and no one ever asks the most important question. Which company has the best safety record? All of Hawaii's past helicopter accidents are easily found online. Some are better than others.

Not to many years ago my wife was on a business trip to Kauai and all the other people in her group talked her into going on a group helicopter tour even though she wasn't comfortable with it. Everything went fine but the very next day the same helicopter crashed on on North Shore killing everyone.

Do your homework, and yes I know the odds of a crash are slim.

 

[SecondAttempt]

Better bang for the dollar IMO. If I were on Maui I'd want to go see the Na pali on the big island and the active volcanoes.
That north shore is really spectacular on the big island. Not like Kauai, but very nice.

Na Pali is on Kauai. You are probably thinking of the Hamakua coast on the Big Island.

I think they have put a lot of restrictions on flights over the volcano on the Big Island, at least within the national park.

Can't help you on Maui.

 

[skyking1]

Na Pali is on Kauai. You are probably thinking of the Hamakua coast on the Big Island.

I think they have put a lot of restrictions on flights over the volcano on the Big Island, at least within the national park.

Can't help you on Maui.

yes, hamakua. I don't see any current TFR's (temporary flight restriction) on the volcano. They have had some doozys in the past.

 

[ER_Hopeful]

Are fixed wings tend to be safer than helicopters?

 

[Koolau]

Are fixed wings tend to be safer than helicopters?

There are likely too many variables to make a blanket statement about safety of fixed wing vs helicopters. I can assure you that helicopters are more difficult to learn to fly. Helicopters are much less inherently stable than fixed wing. Helicopters are considerably more complex machines than fixed wing. In theory, a helicopter needs a lot less space to land in the case of engine power loss.

I couldn't find good stats (gave up too quickly??)

Helicopters tend to be used in less safe operations than fixed wing, so there's that.

Now, ask me which I personally would feel safer in. Fixed wing for sure. On my fifth lesson in a fixed wing, we lost all engine power (engine literally exploded into pieces.) The instructor easily put the plane down in a winter wheat field. We walked away without a scratch. Supposedly, a good helicopter pilot can autogyro a helicopter to a safe landing in a much smaller space. Of course, that assumes that the main rotor is capable of autogyro operation.

In short. I don't know. BUT you can look up stats on the individual companies you are interested in using for excursion flying. That's where I'd start but YMMV.

 

[Ian S]

It's funny, this question comes up a lot on the Trip Advisor Hawaii forum and no one ever asks the most important question. Which company has the best safety record? All of Hawaii's past helicopter accidents are easily found online. Some are better than others.

Not to many years ago my wife was on a business trip to Kauai and all the other people in her group talked her into going on a group helicopter tour even though she wasn't comfortable with it. Everything went fine but the very next day the same helicopter crashed on on North Shore killing everyone.

Do your homework, and yes I know the odds of a crash are slim.

Without knowing the flight frequency over time for each company, I'm not sure how you would establish a meaningful record. Unless that is published somewhere. Which I doubt. In Hawaii as well as where I live, we have people dying on hikes. Lots of risk in everyday life or on vacations. I guess you just make decisions you're comfortable with. That said, one helicopter tour of the Big Island is enough for me especially with the video from that adventure to revisit from time to time.

 

[skyking1]

We went with Blue Hawaiian on the Big Island. They have a camera setup where your entire trip including commentary and questions by the passengers is recorded and then available for purchase after the flight. That's a definite advantage IMHO.

We did too, we flew out of Hilo when there was a eruption going on, many years ago. It was great.

 

[gcgang]

Maverick.

25 years of great safety.

Started by an ex-Vietnam heli pilot with just one helicopter. Cool success story.

 

[DrRoy]

On Kauai, I flew door off and outside seat for photography.
.

 

[Koolau]

You are braver than I am. Great pictures!

 

[NXR7]

We've used Blue Hawaiian on a couple of islands but one of the best was Island Helicopters on Kauai. They have a tour called Jurassic Falls. They had the exclusive rights to land on the private land where the Jurassic Falls are located, from the first movie. They land off to one side and you walk a short distance over.

The pilot had great knowledge of that scene including that it took like seventeen descents to get that shot. They built the helipad just for that shot. Right after they got the shot a hurricane or large storm hit and they all had to hunker down. The camera crews decided to venture out of the hotel in the raging storm to try and get some shots while staying alive. Thus a lot of that storm footage was genuine.

Their temporary helipad was destroyed by the storm and there are still pieces of the concrete scattered there.

I used to work on a similar-looking helicopter, the Augusta A109A and asked the pilot if that was one. He said it was and said it was owned by a private family on Kauai and leased to the production company for the movie.

There have been some very recent helicopter tour restrictions implemented to reduce the noise so check out the ones you're interested in before you get there to assure they will have availability, or as soon as you arrive.

Every helicopter tour we took in Hawaii was well worth the money. For everyone in our family except me one of those helicopter flights was their first time. I found the Blue Hawaiian operations to be well-run from their intros to the preflight briefings to their overall operation. I used to work in corporate aviation so I knew what to look for and they did everything right. Island Helicopters did also but that appears to have been a much smaller operation.