The above photos depict BPFS’s transition from 2010 thru today.
THE BPFS STORY
Reginald (Regi) Perry, Owner of BPFS, was born and raised on the Ewa Sugar Plantation just minutes away from Kalaeloa Airport. He opened his first Flight School on the South Ramp at Honolulu International in 1992 and provided multi-engine training in a Cessna 310H and successfully graduated many MEL and MEI students. Fast forward to April, 2010, Barbers Point Flight School, LLC. was established, the first private flight school at John Rodgers Airfield since the airfield was transferred by the Navy back to the State of Hawaii in 1999.
The school grew very slowly, with its first Cessna 172 aircraft, N422BP. You will notice that the number “22” is used a lot because Regi’s mother Patricia, who was called “Aunty Pat” by all and “Tutu” (Grandma) by nearly everyone else. So, we began using “422” (For Tutu) or just “22”. Although she has passed, she is always looking after the school.
In his career, Regi flew the BE-18, ATR-42, B727, B737, B757 and B767 and many other light, GA aircraft and being immersed in the industry on all levels, it was easy to see the pilot shortfall on the horizon. As a business, BPFS turned the corner in 2015 and was on a path to be a very successful Flight School. Regi’s vision has always been to keep the school “Pono” which is Hawaiian for a balanced approach to things and to basically do what is right and do it with excellence. The school is always welcoming and has an ever present “local vibe”.
BPFS has grown with special attention to Safety as its cornerstone. Safety, however, isn’t easy or cheap. BPFS only utilizes new or newer, modernized aircraft. When it comes to flying and maintaining our many aircrafts airworthiness, an excellent maintenance team is necessary and the schools approach has always been to “remove and replace” rather than repair or “band-aid” even the smallest most insignificant concerns. Everyone’s Safety matters and above all else, so does our Flight Schools reputation and BPFS has always been above reproach. Our A&P mechanics take maintenance seriously and each aircraft gets 50 hour oil changes, not the required 100 hour oil change. Most importantly though, our mechanics have been given additional credentials by Flight Safety International, Tecnam Aeronautics, Continental Aerospace and Cessna. They are competent professionals who ensure that our aircraft are nearly always mission capable.
BPFS is continuing to grow with current plans to purchase more new aircraft in 2025 and 2026.
More than just an airport, John Rogers Field (JRF/PHJR)
If you stood outside the gates of Naval Air Station (NAS) Barbers Point 40 years ago, you would be in the midst of 1,000 acres of sugar cane. Your view to the right, up the sprawling ‘Ewa plains you would see an even greater area of pineapple. The area then was agricultural and military.
NAS Barbers Point was opened in 1942 and at its peak housed 6,500 servicemen and their families, on 3,800 acres. Known as “The Crossroads of the Pacific” it was at one time the largest U.S. base of its kind in the Pacific theater.
Known most famously for its submarine-hunting P-3 aircraft, the base played an important role in WWII, the Korean Conflict, and the Viet Nam War. In the ’90s, however, the shuttering of military installations, known as the Base Realignment and Closure action, left Barbers Point on the chopping block of budget considerations and the installation was closed in 1999 and turned over to the State of Hawaii. The area was named Kalaeloa (“the long point” in Hawaiian). The Naval Air Museum Barbers Point was established almost immediately after that. Then on July 1, 1999, the State officially turned the former navy runways and hangars into a multi-use, civilian and military (the Coast Guard Station there never left), regional airport, named Kalaeloa Airport after the surrounding town on the outskirts of Kapolei.
For its first few years, the airport was a ghost town servicing GA and hobbyists. However, change was coming.
The city of Kapolei, planned as the “Second City” of Oahu since the ’50s, was growing fast. Though nothing on the island is too far from anywhere else, traffic was becoming a real urban planning problem. To reduce congestion, and ease some of the strain of Honolulu, Kapolei was envisioned as a self-contained place with housing, business, and as a secondary consideration (at the time) an airport, and with being the terminus for a light rail system that is well underway today.
As Kapolei grew, so did its eponymous airport. Several businesses and two Hawaii flight schools (one private, the other affiliated with the University of Hawaii) were active on the field. In 2011, the airport’s FBO was established by the owner of the private flight school. Each year, since it was founded, Barbers Point Aviation Services (BPAS) has seen significant growth, adding offerings every year to become a full-service aviation company, and providing a needed alternative to the crowded skies of Honolulu. In so doing, the traffic to the airport has increased exponentially with military, business, and ferry flights now a common occurrence. The activity on the airfield has also included the landing of the historic Solar Impulse as its first stop in the U.S., and the filming of major motion pictures.
In 2014, Mokulele Airlines began flying commercial passenger flights out of Kalaeloa, cementing the proposition that aviation is an important and viable part of the community. With the population of the surrounding cities expected to triple by 2020, and with the new rail bringing passengers close to the airport, growth and expansion of our Oahu Flight School are inevitable.