Darcel Sheldon Marine Corps ADVERTISING Upolu Airport needed A group of Kohala citizens is up in arms over the military’s intent to use Upolu Airport to train pilots. This airport has been used by both civilian and military aircraft since
Marine Corps
Upolu Airport needed
A group of Kohala citizens is up in arms over the military’s intent to use Upolu Airport to train pilots. This airport has been used by both civilian and military aircraft since 1927, serving fixed and rotary wing operations.
The Marine Corps proposes to use Upolu for training because in almost every way this airport is ideal, no other airport comes close to fitting these training needs, not to mention that Upolu is very isolated and is probably the most under-utilized airport in Hawaii.
The aircraft that plan on operating here are complicated concepts, especially the tilt-rotor MV-22, and require an intense training regime.
Once qualified, these pilots will be operating in the thin air of Pohakuloa (6,000-foot elevation). This less-dense air mass drastically narrows the safe operating envelope for these aircraft, so it is imperative that they be able to train at sea level before moving up to the more demanding thin air environment at Pohakuloa.
It would be selfish, short-sighted and dangerous to try to deny these young Marines this training site.
Tommy Tinker
Kohala
Traffic merge
A suggested solution
I’m responding to Barry Finkenberg’s letter about the problem on Queen Kaahumanu Highway between the transfer station and Kealakehe Parkway driving north. I don’t know what the eventual solution will be until the proposed highway continuing from there ever gets built, however, with respect, spending money on a couple of merge signs unfortunately won’t solve anything.
Ninety nine percent of the drivers know full well that the right lane eventually is a right-hand-turn-only lane, and the arrows indicating so are marked well before the intersection.
Allowing vehicles to merge prior to that is easier to concede to than waiting patiently in the line of traffic while dozens of cars race by in the right lane expecting to be let in or cut in when they are at the intersection. Or worse yet, I’ve seen many cars turn right on Kealakehe Parkway only to turn back on to the highway after the light. This is illegal — a violation of traffic laws. I suggest police set up just before the intersection like they do for seat belt checks and pull over to ticket those driving all the way up to the light, well past the right turn arrows expecting to turn left from the right-hand-turn- only lane.
A few weeks of this and people would soon realize when and where it is appropriate and legal to merge, hopefully preventing an eventual accident, not to mention the road rage that occurs at the intersection, when those who comply with the law are expected to allow others to disregard the law.
If the police department thinks this is a waste of its time, I would like to remind officers of how their steady enforcement of speed limits along that stretch of new highway eventually produced more law-abiding citizens.
Kailua-Kona
Darcel Sheldon
