A Sunrise in the Rising Desert Sun to the Blue Skies on Hawaii’s Oldest Island

PHOENIX to LIHUE

So humans, people, everyone in between and @Tajay . On Easter, Phoenix, Las Vegas and a bunch of other airports were featured, like the ones I flew to in my last post. We could fly any route from Phoenix for @AmericanVirtual as routes of the week, So I decided to fly from Phoenix to Hawaii, surprisingly enough, I decided to fly to Lihue, not Kona. American flies to Kona from Phoenix in their A321NEO but they fly to Lihue in the 757, which I was in the mood to fly. I took a weird route so that I would over fly every Hawaiian Island, from the Big Island, to Maui to, to Molokai, over Oahu and down into Lihue on the island of Kauai. Kauai is the oldest of the Hawaiian islands and the greenest and most lush. The runway is short at only 6,000 feet so it makes for a really beautiful approach with good scenery of the volcanoes of the islands. I took off just after 9AM on the east coast which was as the sun was rising in Phoenix. Flight time was 7 hours and 5 minutes.

Flight Details

KPHX-PHLI • PHX-LIH
Phoenix to Lihue
American (AAVA) 643
US Airways Boeing 757-200
7:05
@JulianB

Lifting off of the runway as an American A321 taxies in from Seattle
Putting the gear up as we climb into the desert sun Ascending over Phoenix, the biggest city in Arizona The deserts of Palm Springs California as we fly West toward the Hawaiian Islands Just outside of Los Angeles as fly toward the California Coast Flying next to the Big Island, the biggest Island in the United States with views of Mauna Kea, sometimes with snow on its peak 40,000 feet above the pastures of the Big Island Starting to descend past the island of Oahu, Hawaii’s most famous island being home to the capital city of Honolulu On final approach into Lihue as our airspeed ticks down to 120 knots, just above stall speed Touching down in Kauai!

As always please let me know your thoughts and your favorite photo!

Which of these famous movies was filmed on Kauai?

  • Sully
  • The Jungle Book
  • Jurassic Park
0 voters

You guys better do well on that^ 😂

The answer to the last question was 1971-2001 which 93% got correct!

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Dang! those are beautiful…

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My gosh, I hope Sully wasn’t filmed in Lihue…

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Nice pics! I didn’t see any errors… Also 7 hours? Wow, you really took the scenic route (literally)

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These are incredible photos! (As always haha). I’m also impressed that you flew the 757 lol.

This picture is just so so good!

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Nice pictures. Makes me miss Us Airways.

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That livery looks perfect on the 757.

Once again, I can’t express my interest for your photos.

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Thanks a lot @Ajaxibrahim!

@Tyler you never know 😏
@Suhas I’m happy there were no mistakes ;). And yeah I was pretty close on fuel cruising at 40,000 feet, but it was looooong

@Pertonics I miss them too, that livery is great :(
@luca1s thanks a lot! I love the 757 so I have to workaround how it’s so messed up, but I think I made it look pretty good, and that shot is so cool because the Big Island is AAAMMMMMAAAAAZZZZINNNNNGGGG

@Key it might be my favorite livery! I wish AA kept some in it

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