Hello, IFC! I’m back with some more pictures, and this one is interesting! I’ve always wanted to fly United’s famous “Island Hopper,” the flight that takes off from Honolulu to Guam while stopping at 5 other islands in between. I had enough time so I said why not? I decided to make the flight all in 1 trip, and boy was it a long one! Here’s how my flight looked on LiveFlight once I finished the flight:
In real life, the Island Hopper is such a unique route. It visits 5 islands with low populations in a very remote part of the world. The route was originally flown by Air Micronesia, which then became Continental Micronesia, and as we know, Continental was merged into United. Originally, the route was flown by 727s, but now it’s flown with 737s. These 737s are rotated out from Micronesia to the mainland US every once in awhile, as the salt water is bad for the planes after long periods of time. These 737s also have interior modifications, such as the first row of economy being able to support a stretcher if a medical evacuation from one of the islands is necessary. For more information on the Island Hopper, I highly recommend watching aviation YouTuber Jen Brook’s video on it which you can find by clicking on this sentence. I always wanted to fly it in IF and finally had the chance!
Flight Info:
Departure airport: Honolulu (PHNL)
Arrival Airport: Guam (PGUM)
Flight time: 9 hours and 19 minutes
Gate-to-gate time: 10 hours and 34 minutes
For individual flight times, see here:
Individual Flight Times
- PHNL-PKMJ: 4 hours and 34 minutes
- PKMJ-PKWA: 45 minutes
- PKWA-PTSA: 50 minutes
- PTSA-PTPN: 40 minutes
- PTPN-PTKK: 1 hour
- PTKK-PGUM: 1 hour and 25 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800, United
Callsign: UAL1540 (the real flight uses 154, but another pilot was using the call sign also doing the same route, so I changed it to avoid confusion)
Server: Expert
Now, for some pictures!
A morning takeoff from Honolulu, banking right after lifting off from runway 8R
Our first stop: Majuro in the Marshall Islands
Along the way you’ll find a bunch of uninhabited atolls…
Banking into stop number 2: Kwajalein, which is an active military base. No passengers can get off here, unless they’re military!
Landing at our third stop: Kosrae. Kosrae has the shortest runway of the trip, with a length of only 5,750ft or 1,753m!
On final at our 4th stop: Pohnpei!
Stop number 5: Chuuk! Passengers flying the whole trip are probably a little tired by now…We only have 1 more leg to go!
On final for runway 6L at our last stop: Guam! After over 9 hours since taking off on the 737, our passengers have finally arrived!
Thanks for joining me on this journey! Flying the Island Hopper is such a fun experience, and I highly recommend it if you have 10 hours of free time and the time to make 6 different landings. This is such a remote part of the world, I just had to experience it on IF and see the beautiful scenery! Thanks for following along, and see you next time in the Infinite Flight skies!
