ByCraig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
A plaque at the Pali lookout commemorates hang-gliding feat.

Up, up in the air
over the Pali

Feel the wind in your face at the Pali Lookout? It's also handy if you're going to try gliding. That nearly constant updraft occurs when the irresistible tradewinds meet the unmoveable Pali, and someone with a set of wings can laze back and forth all day.

And that's exactly what happened over two days in mid-December, 1931. Army gliding enthusiast 2nd. Lt. William A. Cocke went aloft in the glider "Nighthawk" and set a world endurance record. It was one of many gliding achievements in Hawaii.

Cocke was a member of the 19th Pursuit Group at Wheeler Field, and their short-lived insignia of a Hawaiian riding a tiger adorned the tail of his glider. Take-off was from Galt Field, a long-gone glider aerodrome at the base of the Pali.

To keep from crashing into the mountains at night, Cocke's pals in the 64th Coast Artillery Battery turned their giant searchlights on the Pali. When the tradewinds began to wither, Cocke landed after 21 hours and 34 minutes, a world record. He also flew higher in a glider than anyone else in America, up to 3,454 feet.

Officials of the National Aeronautic Association observed the flight from the Pali Lookout. On Dec. 8, 1996, the National Soaring Museum dedicated a plaque to Cocke's feat at the observation point. The sign is visible on the lower observation deck of the Pali Lookout. This plaque is part of the National Landmarks of Soaring program, and the Pali is only the ninth such site in the United States to be chosen.

Cocke was one of the first American pilots killed in the Imperial Japanese attack in the Philippines. The "Nighthawk" still exists, and recently was on display at an aviation museum in Santa Monica, California.

Webheads can check out http://www.aloha.com/~davelueh/ for more information.

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By Burl Burlingame