East Coast tourists, from left, Gini Wittorff, Bette Conroy and Donna Hermann remember pilot William Joseph "Helicopter Joe." Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser   A memorial consisting of flowers, a Bible and a teddy bear was set up today off Kuhio Highway in Princeville near the site of yesterday's helicopter tour crash that killed four people. Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser   This photograph of William Joseph "Helicopter Joe" is from his website, www.helicopterjoe.com www.helicopterjoe.com

East Coast tourists Gini Wittorff, Bette Conroy and Donna Hermann showed up at the Princeville Airport this morning wanting to deliver a card to Sulak's employer, Heli USA, that they hoped could be forwarded to Sulak's children.

The three friends — Wittorff and Hermann are from Pennsylvania and Conroy's from New Jersey — wanted to make sure that Sulak's children knew their dad had been bragging about them one day before he died.

"He was very personable and I'd like his children to know he was talking about them on that last flight," Conroy said.

The three women paid a total of $240 for the one-hour flight and were joined by a couple, who sat in the two front seats next to Sulak.

Over the course of the flight, Sulak talked about his flying career, his divorce and his 19-year-old son attending college in California and his daughter, who is in real estate on the Mainland.

Sulak gave them a great, memorable flight, they said. They called him compassionate and personable.

"It was a wonderful tour," Hermann said. "He seemed like a very competent pilot. I felt very safe."

When they saw television news reports about yesterday's crash, Hermann said, "I just couldn't believe it when they said, 'Helicopter Joe.'"

Wittorff quickly added, "I think all of us felt like somebody had punched us in the stomach."

And then the women had another thought, Wittorff said.

"We were one day away from being on that helicopter" that crashed, she said.

Sulak's neighbors in Princeville today described him as a quiet, unassuming man who loved to watch sunsets on his porch and marvel at the beauty of Kaua'i.

"It seems like it's always the good ones that go," said Jim Boulton, a nextdoor neighbor.

Boulton, who knew Sulak for about two years, said he cried when he heard his friend had died. While both had served in Vietnam, they preferred to talk about about nature and flying — not war stories.

Bill Malish, who lived across the street, said the Sulak was originally from Texas. The two became fast friends when Malish one day hung a Texas Longhorns flag outside his house. Malish is displaying the flag again today in honor of the pilot.

The house in which Sulak was living, on Victoria Loop, is leased by Heli USA for new employees arriving on the island. Sulak has lived in the house for three years, serving as a mentor to newcomers.