* * * * * Kilauea at the Big Island. On the next day, 17th October 1991, I went back to the flight school at HNL, and rented me a new Piper Cherokee 180, along with the same instructor I had on the helicopter. The Cherokee is a low-winged monoplane, with a single Lycoming 180 HP engine, which gave us a solid cruising speed of 140 mph. I hand-flew the Cherokee (the fun part) while I had the instructor handle the radio and navigation (the boring part). The instructor guided us past the west sides of Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe and Maui – observing all these islands in the far distance. Later he set me up for a run down the northeast coast of the Big Island, which in a word was stunning. I viewed a series of cliffs a thousand feet high covered in green, with dee...