AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2015 - 96

It's also a reminder not to turn right in the event of a missed
approach. That thought turns my attention to the front
windows. In my hands I can feel the autothrottles and the
autopilot working their magic. Just a few hundred feet to
go. I turn off the autopilot, because I will have to make a
turn to join the final if we see the runway. The terrain precludes a straight-in approach.
The captain is just beginning to call for a go-around
when the runway comes into view. I start a descent, and
together, we realize that this just isn't going to work. This
is no place to try to salvage an approach.
NOT JUST AN AIRLINE

This isn't your typical general aviation story. It isn't even
your typical aviation story. The airport is not your typical
airline destination, and this is not your typical trip. The destination was Kosrae (pronounced kose-rye), an island in the
Federated States of Micronesia (FSM)-an island nation in
the middle of the Pacific Ocean, less than 400 miles from
the Equator. This is the third stop on the Island Hopper.
The Island Hopper is a legacy of the old Air Micronesia,
an airline started in part by Continental Airlines in 1968.
Air Mike, as it was affectionately called, was based and
headquartered on the island of Guam. While other routes
eventually sprouted from Guam to cities in Japan, China,
Australia, and the Philippines, the bread and butter was the
Hopper. In time, Continental acquired complete ownership
of the company. Today, it operates as a part of the merged
United Airlines.
The Hopper is not just an airline route. It's a lifeline, a
necessary and required part of the lives of the people in the
96 | AOPA PILOT November 2015

FSM and the Marshall Islands. It began with Teflon-coated
727s and coral runways. Today, the airplane is the Boeing
737-800 and the runways are all paved, although most are
relatively short. The longest is on the atoll of Majuro (7,800
feet). The shortest is here in Kosrae, at 5,700 feet.
Three days a week, Flight 155 leaves Guam early in
the morning and heads for Chuuk, the first leg of the trip.
The wind that whips around Chuuk makes it one of the
more challenging approaches because of the wind shear
produced. It's also the longest leg, at an hour and 40 minutes block to block. Doing the walkaround will give you an
idea of just how different this trip is from most-instead of
watching the belt loaders send luggage and golf clubs into
the belly bins, there are a lot of coolers that are taped shut.
They contain food, medicine, and fragile items that are otherwise hard to come by in the islands. There are dozens of
boxes of mail, live roosters, wheelchairs, even refrigerators.
Even the regular luggage is oversized. The few tourists that
we do carry often have bags of scuba gear for Chuuk, which
is a bucket-list destination for divers who come to explore
the more than 70 Japanese ships and airplanes that were
sunk here by the United States in World War II.
Also loaded before I got to the airplane was the spare
parts kit. Because of the nature of the route, we will carry
a pallet of carefully chosen parts for the airplane, including a spare tire, in case we break down. We will also carry a
mechanic with us, who will do his own preflight inspection
each leg, in addition to the one that the pilots do. He'll service the oil as needed, cool the brakes with fans, and put on
the fuel at each station. Because of the long stretch of open
water with little in the way of suitable landing alternates,

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2015