Narrative:

I was the radar-controller for sector R-3 at the time. Aircraft X was on an IFR flight plan to lup. Lup has a GPS approach to the airport but; aircraft X was not GPS equipped and elected to do a visual approach into lup. Lup is an airport that is 7.7 miles northeast of mkk. Lup is situated in a geographical location on a peninsula at the bottom of the highest sea cliffs in the world. This makes cell-phones unsaleable as well as our frequencies. The present procedure is for the pilots to make a land-line call to the molokai airport tower controller. That controller would then call me at sector R-3 to advise me of the arrival of the aircraft at lup. What makes this a bad situation is the proximity of lup to mkk (7.7 miles). Molokai airport is basically shut-down with no arrivals or departures until the inbound to lup calls with their landing at lup. In today's situation; the subject aircraft did not call us for about 10 minutes after his estimated time of arrival. He later called us in the air when he departed lup on a VFR flight plan looking for an IFR clearance. The pilot said he tried to use the phone but it has not been working for a week. I advised him that if we did not receive an arrival report from him; we could not let anyone land or depart lup or molokai airport. We later found out that there are 2 phones near the premises. Recommendation; I would recommend the upkeep of the phones. Maybe a big sign that says 'report arrival time at this phone'; or something like that. It seems like a funny situation based on the remoteness of the airport but it does have ramifications to the busier molokai airport just above the cliffs from lup (kalaupapa airport). An alternate recommendation would be to install a repeater site that can send and receive to/from between molokai tower and lup.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: HCF Controller voiced concern regarding the phone limitations at LUP airport; noting that inoperable phones or pilot failure to notify ATC regarding landing information results in unnecessary delays at MKK airport.

Narrative: I was the RADAR-Controller for Sector R-3 at the time. Aircraft X was on an IFR flight plan to LUP. LUP has a GPS approach to the airport but; Aircraft X was not GPS equipped and elected to do a Visual Approach into LUP. LUP is an airport that is 7.7 miles NE of MKK. LUP is situated in a geographical location on a peninsula at the bottom of the highest Sea Cliffs in the World. This makes cell-phones unsaleable as well as our frequencies. The present procedure is for the pilots to make a land-line call to the Molokai Airport Tower Controller. That Controller would then call me at Sector R-3 to advise me of the arrival of the aircraft at LUP. What makes this a bad situation is the proximity of LUP to MKK (7.7 miles). Molokai Airport is basically shut-down with no arrivals or departures until the inbound to LUP calls with their landing at LUP. In today's situation; the subject aircraft did not call us for about 10 minutes after his estimated time of arrival. He later called us in the air when he departed LUP on a VFR flight plan looking for an IFR clearance. The pilot said he tried to use the phone but it has not been working for a week. I advised him that if we did not receive an arrival report from him; we could not let anyone land or depart LUP or Molokai Airport. We later found out that there are 2 phones near the premises. Recommendation; I would recommend the upkeep of the phones. Maybe a BIG SIGN that says 'REPORT ARRIVAL TIME AT THIS PHONE'; or something like that. It seems like a funny situation based on the remoteness of the airport but it does have ramifications to the busier Molokai Airport just above the cliffs from LUP (Kalaupapa Airport). An alternate recommendation would be to install a REPEATER SITE that can send and receive to/from between Molokai Tower and LUP.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.