Southwest’s Inaugural Flight from San Jose to Coffee Country

Screenshots and Videos
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HELLO FROM YOUR SEEMINGLY ALWAYS HAWAII (specifically Kona) SCREENSHOTS POSTER Today Southwest started service from San Jose to Kona which they will fly 3 times a week, obviously because they were flying to Kona, I had to fly the route. So yesterday I flew San Jose to Kona and back to San Jose to have this post for right now as Southwest 4032 is currently flying over the Pacific and it’s scheduled to arrive almost an HOUR ahead of schedule 😳. Thanks to @BigBert10 for giving me the idea for this route. The Boeing 737-800 will be used as Southwest uses only 737-800s on flights to Hawaii, so I used it too. I took off around 7:20 PST as the sun was rising, got to Kona around 10:30 AM and then left Kona around 11 AM HST, so I landed back in San Jose around 5:20 PM as the sun was setting. It took 4 hours and 45 minutes to get to Kona and 4 hours 23 minutes too fly back to SJC for a final flight time of 9 hours and 8 minutes.

Flight Details

KSJC-PHKO-KSJC • SJC-KOA-SJC
San Jose to Kona to San Jose
Southwest 643
Boeing 737-800
4:45 / 4:23 ••• 9:08

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The landing lights shine through the yellow sky as we lift out of San Jose following the Tecky-3 departure from runway 30R
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Crossing the California Coast set to return in almost 9 hours
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Descending into Kona past the tallest mountain in the world, Mauna Kea! Let’s see how many people disagree 😏
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Gear down on final approach toward runway 17
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Buttering on the Big Island! On the ground in Kona for the first time from San Jose

Actually Alaskan flies this route too

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The gear go up and we turn Northeast toward the California Coast
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The Kona Coast with the golf courses of the Mauna Lani and Waikoloa Village Resorts below (If you’re on vacation on the Big Island you’re probably staying around here). I’ve said the approach into Kona might be one of the best in the world, but the departure may be even better.
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The views of Maui and the other islands as we climb out of Kona
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The sun quickly sets flying East as we descend toward the bay
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I’ve seen smoother sand paper than this landing, but we’re back in San Jose after 9 hours and a sunrise and sunset

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

41 Likes
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Looks seemingly Hawaiian…

I love the shots and the editing done here! I hope you enjoyed the route as I’m sure it provided a great view of the bay!

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Absolutely lovely! I’m super excited about Southwest being in Hawaii now and I know that @BigBert10 is super excited about this route!

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Finally good to see someone who knows that! Also a volcano.

Again, A+ pictures.

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Thanks for flying this route! 😃

@snoman Yes I am excited for these routes! 😃

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Amazing pictures! Seems like a fun route too.

Amazing quote too lol

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Thanks a lot! I always love flying through the bay and the sunset makes it 100x better

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I’m also excited about their Hilo-Honolulu route which I’m going to try soon!

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Haha, yep! We went to the Big Island so I like to think I know a lot about it, we also talked a lot about Hawaii in Science class talking about land formations, and hot spots etc…

And random fun fact: there are 5 major volcanoes on the Big Island- Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, Kīlauea, Kohala and Hualalai

And Mauna Loa is the biggest volcano in the world in terms of mass

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Haha thanks, it was B A D trust me! 😂

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I love Southwest and I love Hawaii! I mean who doesn’t like a nice sunny beach?. Great pictures I look forward to seeing more.

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Great landing light edits (and fantastic shots)!

Thanks for sharing ;)

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I mean this truly, @NoahM, your screenshot quality, and editing have improved so much. I think everyone can agree here. You started off posting just some screenshots of your flight, not editing them, pretty much basic (no offence, this is a huge compliment) but now, just amazing! You have improved so much it’s crazy! I truly feel that you are one of the best editors on the community!

Keep it up with the amazing shots and cant wait to see more!

3 Likes
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Thank you! I like editing in the Landing Lights just to make the shots seem more realistic and for some reason I think it’s fun to add them 😀🤙

(And yes I only added the Shaka because this was a Hawaii route 😂)

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Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, that TRULY MEANS A LOT
I put my first 3 Screenshots and Videos topics below because I remember how I thought the shots were amazing, when in reality I didn’t use free cam at all so they were lacking originality. And I remember I didn’t edit or add descriptions because I though they took too long to do. Now each of these topics takes probably 2 hours total between taking the screenshots (usually about 30 per flight), editing, finding information about what I fly over and then making the whole topic. I love taking pictures IRL and this is my way of doing it in IF. I actually have 5 flights that I have to take screenshots for still so I should have 1 post a day for the next week 😂.

My first 3 (which are very unimpressive when I look at them now lol)
1.

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Next challenge tail lights 😉

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Man this is good. You captured the scenery almost perfectly for IF standereds! Nice job!

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That’ll be tough, but I’ll try it with my next nighttime post!

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Thanks a lot!!! 😊