Makani Kai Helicopters Staff

We have built our aerial tour business to be the very best possible by assembling the most experienced pilots and the best aircraft. We backed these with the most comprehensive maintenance program and with a total commitment to safety. Over the years, we have developed the most comfortable and efficient ground transportation system possible between the airport and Waikiki. We have constructed a modern, airy, clean and esthetically pleasing passenger terminal and shopping area to maximize passenger satisfaction.

But in truth, our most valuable asset is our people. The Schuman philosophy is to hire the most qualified individuals for the job, individuals with heart, and then strive to retain those employees by paying them well and treating them with the respect they deserve. Which explains why our employees tend to remain on the job so much longer than workers at other tour companies. We know that there’s nothing quite so confidence building for an agent as being able to deal with the same reservationists year after year, that drivers who have been making the trip into Waikiki for a decade are unlikely to get lost, that happy support personnel are more apt to do their job with passion and commitment. It is our promise to you that we will always be a family, gracious and professional, to help you do your job the best that you can.

Richard Schuman – Owner
Richard’s family has been in the transportation business in Hawaii for more than a hundred years. His great grandfather emigrated from Germany and began making carriage wheels here and then founded the Schuman Carriage Company in 1893. Richard began flying helicopters in 1992 and, four years later, he bought Makani Kai Helicopters. Richard believes in providing nothing less than the very best in customer service, a philosophy we hope you will notice when you fly with Makani Kai.

Diane Schuman – Chief Financial Officer
The former Diane Haglund was born and raised in Harrisville, Michigan. She majored in Business and Accounting at Northwood Institute (now Northwood University) in Midland, Michigan, where she met her future husband, Richard Schuman. Following graduation, she moved to Oahu in 1981 and was an accountant for an auto accessory company and then a law firm. She and Richard were married in 1984 and had their first daughter, Kaleo, in 1988. Her interests include tennis, hiking and riding her Harley Davidson.

Chuck Lanza – Manager of Operations
Chuck is Makani Kai’s manager of operations and chief safety officer. He arranges everything from charters to group movements and organizes company meetings, oversees haz mat procedures and schedules maintenance. A veteran of the helicopter tour business, Chuck started with HeliTrans in Honolulu in 1991, joined Papillion in 1992, and he’s run the show at Makani Kai since 1994. Chuck is a Black Belt in multiple martial arts disciplines and is a devotee of Japanese swords.

Cindy Makalii – Chief Reservationist
Cindy started with Makani Kai Helicopters in October of 2001, after having been a reservationist with the Rainbow Pacific Helicopters in Honolulu for four years before that. A youthful mother of five, with two grandkids, Cindy traces her Hawaiian roots back at least a half-dozen generations. Her passions include everything from sewing and beadwork to drawing and woodcarving. She’s also a genius with plants, having turned Makani Kai’s lanai area into a garden jungle. Cindy says one of the great rewards of her job is “filling a seat two hours prior to a flight…it’s an adrenaline rush.”

Mike Iven – Technician
Landau, Germany, where Mike was born, is a renowned wine region, so it’s no surprise that Mike spent his childhood summers picking grapes and working in the wineries. At age 18, Mike began a three year apprenticeship with Roeder Precision in order to become a licensed Airframe and Power plant mechanic. Ever industrious, Mike also studied accounting and marketing during this time and earned his degree. Pursuing a childhood dream, Mike took flight training in the U.S. during brief vacations each year and earned his Private fixed wing and rotorcraft ratings. Tired of the commute, he eventually moved to the U.S. and worked as a mechanic and flight instructor for Helicopter Adventures in Concord, California. He moved to Hawaii in 1999 and has applied his Teutonic efficiency and precision to aircraft and engines ever since.

Doug O'Sullivan – Pilot
Born and raised in Kailua on Oahu, Doug’s first job was as an auto mechanic, a gig he enjoyed. But Doug’s father felt there were better things in his future and told Doug as much. Which led him to enroll in Hawaii International Helicopters flight school. His first commercial work came as a “pilot/mechanic/slave” for Mauna Kea Helicopters on the Big Island. After building time, Doug and a partner formed Imua Air Service, where he flew tours and did utility work. He worked for Makani Kai Helicopters from 1996 to 1998, then did fire fighting and utility work for Hawaiian Electric and the U.S. Army. Other jobs followed at Windward Aviation, Pacific Helicopters and Carson Helicopters in Oregon, before Doug returned to Oahu to work once again for Makani Kai. He has over 10-thousand hours in helicopters.

Eiki Miyasato – Pilot
Eiki was born in Okinawa and moved to Hawaii in 1972. He became a tour driver and, over the next 15 years, learned the ins and outs of Waikiki. When a friend of his started taking flying lessons in airplanes, Eiki was intrigued but decided to pursue his helicopter rating instead. After he earned his Commercial license and Instructor’s rating, he started flying tours and teaching for Hawaii International Helicopters. In 1991, he joined Makani Kai Helicopters. Today, Eiki has well over 15,000 hours of flight time and has gone on to earn his fixed-wing Private, Commercial, Instrument and Multi-Engine ratings.

Juha Sironen – Mechanic
This native of Finland was an X-Ray and ultrasonic inspector who primarily served the welding and construction industries. His strengths include an inordinate attention to detail, a skill that served him well during the decade he spent fabricating dive suits and deep water gear. He also has a lengthy boat building background, experience that ironically helped him become part of the Makani Kai team. His specialty is refurbishing aircraft for Makani Kai’s sister company, Hawaii Aviation Services, and he recently gutted and refinished the complete interiors of two Piper Chieftains.

Jay Waters – Mechanic
Jay grew up in New Jersey and remembers being interested in helicopters and aviation from an early age. After high school, Jay joined the Coast Guard, where he was assigned to serve on Kure Atoll. He enjoyed the assignment well enough but recalls being disappointed that he was not able to surf. His next post was in Honolulu where he found a surfer’s paradise and enjoyed the challenge of search and rescue work. He later attended the Coast Guard’s aircraft school in San Diego and became a maintenance technician. When he left the Coast Guard, he returned to Honolulu, got married, earned his pilot’s license and his Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) certification. Jay started his own business, Precision Aircraft and now works for Makani Kai.

Mike Stroup – Driver
Born in Darby, Pennsylvania, in 1962, Mike was in ROTC in high school and joined the Navy upon his graduation in 1980. He first saw Hawaii when he came to Pearl Harbor in January of 2000 aboard the nuclear attack submarine San Francisco. An electrician and Chief Petty Officer by training, Mike was stationed here until his retirement in 2004. He immediately began training for his helicopter license and eventually earned his Private, Commercial, Instrument and Instructor ratings. An avid cyclist, Mike frequently engages in friendly competition and will pedal around the island just for fun. He enjoys meeting the different people he brings to and from the airport and looks forward to his turn on next season’s “Dancing with the Stars.”

Val Kalaoa, Sr. – Driver
One of ten children, Val was born and raised near what are now the grounds of the Hilton Hawaiian Village. “It used to be bungalows back then,” he says, “and we’d sneak into the swimming pool out by the pier.” An ILH medalist in golf when he attended Kaimuki High School, Val recalls caddying for the likes of Ted Makalena and Francis I’i Brown. He entered the Army after high school, did his basic at Fort Ord, California, his advanced infantry training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and did a tour of Vietnam. He worked for Dole Pineapple in Iwilei for 27 years as a can manufacturing mechanic until the factory was phased out in ’96. He began driving for Makani Kai in 2003 and says the best part of his job is meeting tourists from around the world. He and his wife Charlene have 6 kids, 13 grandchildren and one great grandchild.

Braun Adam – Driver
Braun was born in San Francisco and spent his young adult years in the Bay Area, attending San Mateo Community College before taking a job driving a truck for Blake Moffett & Towne Paper Company. He hauled cargo up and down the state for a dozen years before putting his mechanical prowess to good use at Rector Cadillac in Burlingame, where he spent eight years fixing GM’s finest. A Cadillac rep mentioned to Braun that the Honolulu dealership was looking for a good mechanic, so Braun came to Oahu in 1987 to work for Schuman Carriage. In 2008, Braun took his current job with Makani Kai Helicopters. This Vietnam vet has a daughter and two grandchildren.

P.J. O’Reilley – Sales and Marketing
P.J. was born in Carmel, California, and has been interested in aviation since childhood. He went to school at the University of California at Santa Cruz where he majored in Theater and Politics, which, he later discovered, turned out to be the same thing. He soloed a Cessna on his 16th birthday and started flying helicopters once he came to Hawaii. He is best known among activity agents in Waikiki as The Brownie Man because he delivers the home made treats on his visits.