Previous Faces

Wally Suenaga- Charter Fleet and Flight School Operator

To Wally Suenaga, the sound of an aircraft engine is music to the ears.

Wally grew up on the Big Island and remembers his early fascination with contrails slicing the sky and powerful yellow MurrayAir biplanes spraying nearby cane fields. His dream of becoming a pilot matured years later when a CAP program enabled the young man to solo a glider at Oahu's Bellows Field.

Years of duty in the U.S. Army provided G.I. Bill benefits which Wally used to acquire his pilot certificates and ratings. From here, he flew jumpers from Dillingham Airfield, then moved on to fish spotting. Wally Suenaga bought a plane for fish spotting in the mid 1980s- starting a string of aircraft acquisitions which currently include a Cessna 402 and a pair of Piper Navajos. In October of 2000, he bought the Oahu Aviation Flight School at HNL, which operates a fleet of seven aircraft. Not bad for a kid from the Big Island.

You would think that aviation alone could provide suitable stimulation for the man, but Mr. Suenaga has led a parallel life as a musician, most notably as bass player for famed Hawaiian group Olomana. These two passions, flying and music, must work well together, for how could the beauty of Hawaii seen from above fail to express itself in music?