Veteran pilot and Wailua Rise resident Ethel Hively, 82, flew a bi-plane Friday in the skies of Kaua‘i. That’s nothing new for Hively, who began flying in the late 1930s. She served as passenger and unofficial co-pilot on a loop
Veteran pilot and Wailua Rise resident Ethel Hively, 82, flew a bi-plane Friday in the skies of Kaua‘i.
That’s nothing new for Hively, who began flying in the late 1930s.
She served as passenger and unofficial co-pilot on a loop around Kaua‘i with Kevin Britt, an owner and pilot for Tropical Biplanes at Lihu‘e Airport.
The ride was a belated Mother’s Day gift from her friends Craig and Michele Della Vedova, and Hively’s daughter Linda Clark. All are involved in the Hale TuTu bed and breakfast, which is named after Hively.
Clark said her mother, who grew up in Los Angeles, delivered Piper Cub airplanes from a factory in Kansas to Southern California. She said her late father was also a pilot who served in the Army Air Corps during World War II.
Hively had a wide variety of flying experiences in the past including flying a Gyrocopter, a half-helicopter, half fixed-wing aircraft invented by Waldo Waterman. Waterman was a family friend, Clark said.
Clark said her mother was ready to obtain a pilot’s license when she was about 14, but was kept back due to having no fear of flying, but was flying as a licensed pilot by age 18.
She said her mother was invited to ferry planes to Europe during World War II, but her husband said “no.”
Clark said her mother flew out of Aviation Field, an airstrip now better known as Los Angeles International Airport, and other California fields like Blythe Airfield and Burbank Airfield.
