Aviation Feed

The great experience of saving lives

MARK PALM
| Samaritan Aviation Newsletter

Samaritan

WEWAK - One of our amazing stories is about the first patient Samaritan Aviation ever flew in 2010.

Her name was Antonia and she had been in labour for three days. She was unconscious when we got the call on Good Friday from the Timbunki Health Centre, located along the Sepik River.

Continue reading "The great experience of saving lives" »


Antonia: The first Samaritan patient

MARK PALM
| Samaritan Aviation Newsletter

Samaritan_Aviation

WEWAK - One of Samaritan Aviation’s amazing stories is about the first patient we ever flew in 2010.

Her name was Antonia and she had been in labour for three days. She was unconscious when we got the call on Good Friday from the Timbunki Health Centre, located along the Sepik River.

I remember putting the stretcher in the airplane and taking off into the rain and clouds for the 35-minute flight.

 

Continue reading "Antonia: The first Samaritan patient" »


Three aircraft give Samaritan a big leg up

NEWS DESK
| Samaritan Aviation Newsletter

Samaritan - Float planes at berth
Two of Samaritan Aviations' three float planes at their home berth on the Sepik River


WEWAK - Samaritan Aviation has grown from having just one pilot in Papua New Guinea back in 2010 to now having three pilots flying every day.

After we started flying we conducted 48 life flights that first year. With three working planes and three pilots we are breaking records by logging 342 flights.

Continue reading "Three aircraft give Samaritan a big leg up" »


Medical patrols, rain & a broken airplane

MARK PALM
| Samaritan Aviation

SA Mark & Nick fix the plane

MESA, ARIZONA, USA - On my recent trip to Papua New Guinea, I found myself pulling alongside the dock in Kapuna in our seaplane to begin our first-ever medical patrol in the Gulf Province.

This side of the island has never had a medical service like Samaritan Aviation and we will be bringing long-overdue hope and access to this part of the country.

Continue reading "Medical patrols, rain & a broken airplane" »


Remembering the escape from New Guinea

ROBERT PARER CMG MBE

CORINDA QLD - On Wednesday 17 December 1941, 10 days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour brought the USA into World War II, the Australian government despatched a large passenger ship, SS Katoomba, to Port Moresby.

Its main and urgent mission was to take on board Australian mothers and their children, dependents of Australian men who were working in Papua New Guinea.

Continue reading "Remembering the escape from New Guinea" »


Recent Notes 22: One of aviation's greatest

THE STORY OF AVIATOR ‘BATTLING’ RAY PARER

Notes   The extensive damage caused to the Airco DH.9 during a forced landing at Moulmein  Burma in April 1920  (Australian War Memorial  p00281-012
The undercarriage was ripped off Ray Parer's Airco DH9 during a forced landing at Moulmein,  Burma, in April 1920. The two pilots flew from England to Australia in this single-engine, open cockpit aircraft (Australian War Memorial,  p00281-012


Members of the iconic Parer family are seeking to induct the intrepid ‘Battling’ Ray Parer (1894-1967) and his flying partner John McIntosh (1892-1921) in the Australian Aviation Hall of Fame. When you read about their exploits in making the first England to Australia flight in a single-engined aircraft, you wonder why their names aren’t there already.

Continue reading "Recent Notes 22: One of aviation's greatest" »


Samaritan gives Junior a second chance

MARK PALM *
| CEO & Co-Founder |Samaritan Aviation

Junior
Semi-conscious snakebite victim, Junior, safely on the way to Wewak Hospital aboard one of Samaritan Aviation's float planes. The aircraft provide an aerial ambulance service that has brought a new dimension to PNG health services

CALIFORNIA - Our floatplanes can turn a three-day trip to the hospital into a one hour flight. On a recent trip to Papua New Guinea, Jim Mott and I experienced a flight just like this.

We were on our way to deliver medicine to a remote village, when an urgent message came: 'Snake Bite - Chambri Lakes - 10 year old'.

Continue reading "Samaritan gives Junior a second chance" »


Close call for Oscar after death adder bite

Chris Cooke and Oscar
Chris Cooke (Samaritan Aviation medical director) and Oscar recount the story of his rescue following Oscar’s recovery

NEWS DESK
| Samaritan Aviation

MT HAGEN - It was early morning, and Oscar was getting ready for his day as a high school teacher in Pagwi.

As he walked to the well for his morning shower, he was bitten by a death adder.

Continue reading "Close call for Oscar after death adder bite" »


Overwhelming joy as aviation comes to Wetap

FACEBOOK
| MAF Nederland

MT HAGEN - When Wilfred and Richie got off the plane in Wetap, people immediately came running and hugged the two pilots.

"It was very interesting to open a runway where no one has ever been," Wilfred recounted.

“Suddenly you have to decide whether you fly the circuit right or left. What is better, what is safer?

Continue reading "Overwhelming joy as aviation comes to Wetap" »


At last an intelligent approach to China

CHRIS OVERLAND

ADELAIDE - I have a huge amount of respect for John Menadue and thus accept that his recent comments, ‘Xi & Albanese: Can we seize the opportunity', on his Pearls & Reflections website, reflect his long and deep experience in dealing with China.

I also entirely agree with his remarks on the former Liberal-National Party government, which was spectacularly inept in its dealings with China, although its criticisms of China were not always entirely without merit.

And I strongly approve of the Albanese government's sensible approach to China which has been respectful and forthright, certainly not the shrill, overblown hyperbole that characterised the previous government's approach.

Continue reading "At last an intelligent approach to China" »


Life with the Hewas - the missionary's story

“This is who we are, this is what we are. We are on the Jesus trail. We are Jesus’ followers, and we need you to stay with us because this is all new to us. So stay here and keep living with us” - People of Yifki

MAF - Yifki airstrip (Annelie Edsmyr)
Yifki airstrip - "We hiked everywhere and finally located the perfect valley in the Yifki area"

JONATHAN KOPF
| New Tribes Mission | MAF | Edited

The Hewa tribe of somewhere between 3,000 and 6,000 people lives in little hamlets scattered over 100 km of rugged terrain in the Papua New Guinea Highlands. In 2000 the New Tribes Mission’s Jonathan Kopf, with his wife and family, began to live and work among these people. This is their story. Photos by Annelie Adsmyr

MT HAGEN -– When we arrived in Fiyawena village, the people were eager to have us there and excited to hear the message of the light.

“We’re in the darkness of the jungle, and we know you have the story of the light,” they said. “We want to hear that story.”

Continue reading "Life with the Hewas - the missionary's story" »


8 days of rain & a some bizarre musical chairs

My call alerted the authorities to my existence as a primary trained teacher in a secondary trained position. This triggered a rather drastic chain reaction

Tapini airstrip c 1967 (Bob Grieve)
Tapini grass airstrip, c 1967 (Bob Grieve)

IAN ROBERTSON

BRISBANE – The Tapini airstrip featured as an oddity during my service in Papua New Guinea.

This has begun in 1959 after I had completed the two-year Cadet Education Officer’s certificate course at the Australian School of Pacific Administration in 1958.

Continue reading "8 days of rain & a some bizarre musical chairs" »


New Guinea, 1965: Machines, men & landing places

Omkolai 2
Final approach, Omkolai, 1960s (PNGAA)

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA – This photograph and the one below emerged on Facebook not so long ago.

They brought back many memories of a time now long gone in a place dear to our hearts.

Omkolai airstrip is about 20 km south of Kundiawa. It doesn’t sound that far now. But the road from Kundiawa – precipitous and riven with landslides – always made it seem much, much further than that. Still does, I hear.

Continue reading "New Guinea, 1965: Machines, men & landing places" »


The story of Captain Sheriff: Pride of the Tribe

Capture
PNGDF cadet pilots after graduating from the RAAF Flight School, Point Cook, Australia, 1988. From left: Captain Ted Pakii (flight instructor), Chester Berobero, Major Kwadi (language instructor), Eric Aliawi and Peter Wanamp

PAUL MINGA
| Ples Singsing

PORT MORESBY - Captain Peter Wanamp (‘Captain Sheriff’) Ansphil - a flag bearer for the Jiwaka people and the pride of Senglap tribe - was the first son of the Wahgi Valley to brush aside fear and become an aviator.

His breakthrough as the first person to become pilot from the province broke a barrier in becoming a pioneer pilot for the three ethnic groups, Jimi, Waghi and Kambia – from whose first two letters the name Jiwaka is formed.

Continue reading "The story of Captain Sheriff: Pride of the Tribe" »


Search

Knigge - We quickly leave the bad weather behind us in Mt Hagen.
Wilfred Knigge - "As we set course for Wewak, Hagen township was already swallowed by rain"

WILFRED KNIGGE
| MAF PNG Facebook

WEWAK - It's Tuesday afternoon and I've landing at Mount Hagen. Andy, a colleague pilot from Wewak, tells me something is going on around a missing boat near the East Sepik capital.

We quickly walk to the operations manager’s office for some clarity. There are hardly any details. All we know is that a boat went from Wuvulu Island to Wewak, but failed to arrive there at the agreed time.

Continue reading "Search" »


A very good morning for a Medevac

Medivac 1 aerial top
MAF Medevac - Piet and Marijke flew over some of the world's most rugged and beautiful terrain on their mercy mission

MARIJKE MUILWIJK
|MAF Telefomin

TELEFOMIN – On a Saturday in late August, I had the opportunity to join a Medevac flight with my pilot husband, Piet.

Piet was asked to Medevac a woman with a broken back and an MAF lady offered to babysit our boys so that I could join Piet on the operation. A golden opportunity.

Continue reading "A very good morning for a Medevac" »


Strong backlash over Covid ‘deception’ charge

Capture
The Indian High Commission in Port Moresby

IAN LLOYD NEUBAUER
| Al Jazeera | Edited extract

SYDNEY - The Indian high commission in Papua New Guinea has denied claims by PNG police commissioner David Manning that it helped unauthorised passengers, including four who were infected with Covid-19, to arrive in Port Moresby.

The denial came after Mr Manning last week banned all flights from India, accusing the Indian government of deliberately participating in deception that compromised PNG’s safety and security.

Continue reading "Strong backlash over Covid ‘deception’ charge" »


Great NG airship expedition that never happened

Thumbs_luftschiff_order_card
Postcard printed in 1913 to pre-order of the Pf2, Mk1 and never-produced Mk20 stamps. Only known copy in existence

PETER KRANZ

MORRISET – It is an historical oddity more like an absurdist Monty Python sketch than reality, but it is true.

In 1913, Germany, Britain and Holland, all colonial powers sharing New Guinea, began planning a joint expedition to the giant island.

Continue reading "Great NG airship expedition that never happened" »


Now listen up, you bullies & misogynists

Lucy Maino
Lucy Maino and all Papua New Guinean women need to be treated with  respect, decency and morality. Papua New Guinean men have much to be ashamed of

KARA WEISENSTEIN
| Mic

NEW YORK - Lucy Maino was an accomplished role model before she became Miss Papua New Guinea.

The 25-year-old co-captained her country’s national football team, bringing home two gold medals from the 2019 Pacific Games in Samoa.

She also attended the University of Hawaii on a sports scholarship and earned a business degree.

Continue reading "Now listen up, you bullies & misogynists" »


34 years of flying & plenty of stories

Boga - pilots top
Paul Boga and fellow army pilots pose in front of a PNGDF Nomad

PAUL BOGA
| My Land, My Country

LAE - Marching into the PNGDF Air Transport Squadron in Lae as a young military pilot was beginning of an exciting flying career and lasting camaraderie with other airmen.

With no experience but full of energy, we were assigned to B Flight with Nomad aircraft.

Continue reading "34 years of flying & plenty of stories" »


Aviation could be unforgiving in PNG

3 Tabibuga on final
On final approach at Tabibuga in a Cessna 206. The strip was 1,250 feet long and its 8 degree slope required full throttle to get to the top after touch down

JIM MOORE

WARRADALE, SA - Flying in pre-GPS Papua New Guinea was certainly an unforgiving process.  I knew a number of people who did not survive it.

Harry Balfour-Ogilvy was a kiap in our intake in November 1965. He, his wife and two infant daughters all died in May 1970 when a dangerously overloaded plane took off from Gurney in Milne Bay.

Continue reading "Aviation could be unforgiving in PNG" »


Remembering the tragic Tauta plane crash

Brown 4 Dornier DO27
The Dornier DO27 that crashed when its engine failed after taking off from Tauta

BRYAN McCOOK
| Edited extracts

Acknowledgement: The complete version of senior pilot the late Captain Bryan McCook’s article was originally published on the Professional Pilots Rumor Network. You can link to it here (requires a little downward scrolling)

THURSDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 1964 - My first task on this fateful day entailed flying a DCA aerodrome inspector from Goroka to Nondugl in the Cessna 185.

Nondugl, in the Waghi Valley, belonged to Sir Edward Hallstrom, a prominent industrialist, philanthropist and chairman of Taronga Park Zoo in Sydney. Many birds of paradise and other exotic fauna brought into Nondugl were destined for the zoo.

Continue reading "Remembering the tragic Tauta plane crash" »


Magnificent men & their flying machine stories

Talair near Omkolai 1966
A Talair Cessna over Omkolai, 1966

COMPILED BY KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA – MAF pilot Dave Rogers’ recent yarn about the skills required to land on and take off from some of Papua New Guinea’s many preposterously difficult airstrips attracted much commentary and many war stories from our readers.

I’ve curated a few here, but first one of mine.

I had just become engaged to my first wife, Sue, at a grand party we had at my remote highlands school 10 or so kilometres from Kerowagi and Sue was on her way back home to Sydney to explain it all to her mother.

Continue reading "Magnificent men & their flying machine stories" »


Aviation: Safe landing & taking off in PNG

Dave Rogers and his aircraft
Dave Rogers and his aircraft - safe on the ground

DAVE ROGERS
| MAF Australia Pilot

SYDNEY - Probably one of the most common questions I’m asked by friends and supporters back home is, “What’s it like flying in Papua New Guinea?”

I thought I’d take this opportunity to answer it.

The risks of operating light aircraft, particularly in PNG, necessitates strict adherence to procedures and extensive training.

Continue reading "Aviation: Safe landing & taking off in PNG" »


The plane that flies on a pole

Dc3
P2-ANQ was originally given by General Dwight Eisenhower for the personal use of General 'Monty' Montgomery in 1945

TREVOR MICHIE
| Michie.net | Spotted by Rob Parer | Edited

PORT MORESBY - This DC3, P2-ANQ, with the name of ‘Larry Blackman’, is mounted on display outside the Air Niugini head office at Jackson’s international airport in Port Moresby.

It is there as a monument to all the airmen who gave their lives flying in Papua New Guinea.

Continue reading "The plane that flies on a pole" »


The airship saga that never happened

Mk1 stamp 1913
The one mark expedition stamp (used not for postage but to raise funds) depicting an airship over an idealised New Guinea

ALAN BROOKE

CANBERRA - More than a century ago in the years before World War I, the long-planned Joint German–British airship expedition – the Luftschiff Expedition – was due to conduct the first aerial survey of the mountainous, unexplored interior of New Guinea by airship.

Exploring and mapping the interior of the island by airship would be less costly and arduous than long, dangerous and difficult explorations by foot.

Continue reading "The airship saga that never happened" »


Crack down on international flights

Air Niugini
Papua New Guinea joins the global aviation shut down

NEWS DESK
| NBC News

PORT MORESBY - Papua New Guinea is shutting down international flights amid Coronavirus fears.

Flights in and out of Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Sydney, Honiara and Nadi will cease next Sunday.

Prime minister James Marape said flights will be limited so as to only allow “controlled entry” from Brisbane, Cairns and Singapore.

Continue reading "Crack down on international flights" »


The tragic flight of Mary Madsen

Cessna 180
The Cessna 180 Skywagon was a common aircraft in 1960s PNG

ED BRUMBY

MELBOURNE - In the mid-1960s, Mary and her partner, ‘Mads’ Madsen – no-one used his given forename, ran a small trade store at the top end of Angoram’s infamous Tobacco Road, a few metres from the banks of the Sepik River.

Both were in their mid- to late forties, although no-one knew for sure, and kept mostly to themselves in a small house attached to the trade store which they shared, literally, with a collection of possums and cuscuses which, as you’d expect, provided the house with a none-too-pleasant odour.

Continue reading "The tragic flight of Mary Madsen" »


Relics of B’ville crisis buried in Darwin dump

Russian-built Mil Mi-24 Hind attack helicopters at RAAF Base Tindal  1997
Russian-built Mil Mi-24 Hind attack helicopters at RAAF Base Tindal, 1997

JANO GIBSON
| Australian Broadcasting Corporation | Extract

DARWIN - It is an unlikely setting for the final chapter of an international diplomatic scandal, but Darwin's waste dump holds an extraordinary secret beneath the surface.

"A few years ago, we had a couple of shipping containers turn up here that were required to be buried," Nik Kleine, the City of Darwin's executive manager of waste and capital works, said.

Continue reading "Relics of B’ville crisis buried in Darwin dump" »


The best I could have done at the time

P2-WKD at Siwea 1977
GOF's Cessna 182 P2-WKD at Siwea airstrip, Morobe Province, 1977

GOF *
| The Bucket Blog

TROPICAL NORTH QUEENSLAND - Reflecting upon one’s own life from the vantage point of older age is sometimes rather like reading a tattered autobiographical account of someone else’s life.

Mine contains many examples of gross stupidity and incompetence, but it also, in an early chapter documents one single decision which would continue to shape my life to this day.

Continue reading "The best I could have done at the time" »


The practical wisdom of the kiap

Cessna 206
Cessna 206 taking off from Siwea in the Morobe hinterland, early 1970s (The Bucket Blog)

DAVID KITCHNOGE

PORT MORESBY - I know at least one kiap who actually traversed the rugged terrain from his remote outpost.

My mother's offer letter to come to Lae and attend Busu girls’ high school from our hinterland Mindik village in Finschhafen was delivered by one Paul Oates to my grandfather.

Continue reading "The practical wisdom of the kiap" »


Air Niugini looks at ‘gross negligence’ as cause of Chuuk crash

Embraer-E195-E2
Air Niugini is considering the Brazilian Embraer jet as a possible replacement for some of its current fleet

KEITH JACKSON

LONDON, UK - Air Niugini is bringing in ‘human-factors’ experts to examine safety issues relating to the crash of a 737 aircraft in Chuuk lagoon, Micronesia, last October, killing one passenger and seriously injuring 6 others.

The airline’s managing director Alan Milne, a former Qantas executive, has told Reuters news agency that the pilots involved were not currently flying but remain employed at least until an investigation is complete.

"Was it a criminal act? No,” Mr Milne said. “Was it an intentional act? No.

“Was there gross negligence? That is what we've got to answer.

“That is the bit we are doing at the moment."

Continue reading "Air Niugini looks at ‘gross negligence’ as cause of Chuuk crash" »


‘Too low! Too low!’ Pilot error blamed for Air Niugini jet ditching

Weno Island air crash
Air Niugini Boeing 737-800  sinks in the lagoon at Weno Island (AFP - Zach Niezgodski)

NEWS DESK | AFP

PORT MORESBY – An official crash investigation has found that pilot error led to an aircraft ditching, forcing passengers and crew to swim for their lives at Weno Island in Micronesia last year.

One man died and nine other passengers were injured when the Air Niugini Boeing 737-800 attempted to land, but ended up skimming into a lagoon before sinking.

A Papua New Guinea Accident Investigation Commission report into the 28 September crash found the pilot and co-pilot ignored numerous automated warnings while approaching the runway.

It said the pair missed ‘pull up’ warning lights and continued the landing attempt at Chuuk International Airport, even after bad weather made them lose sight of the runway.

"Both pilots were fixated on cues associated with control inputs for the landing approach, and subsequently were not situationally aware," chief commissioner Hubert Namani said.

Continue reading "‘Too low! Too low!’ Pilot error blamed for Air Niugini jet ditching" »


The Gooney Bird lives on, with a bright new body

Air Niugini DC3PHIL FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - For those of us who were in Papua New Guinea before and just after independence in 1975, the old Douglas DC3 was a familiar sight at every major and many minor airports.

First built in 1935 the DC3 became the workhorse of the golden age of aviation.

During World War II the military version, called the Dakota by the British and affectionately known as the Gooney Bird by the Americans, operated everywhere in PNG.

After the war both Ansett ANA and TAA flew DC3s. So did Air Niugini when it took over from TAA in 1973. They were noisy and basic but very reliable.

Continue reading "The Gooney Bird lives on, with a bright new body" »


Air Niugini eyes axed Cathay Pacific Cairns – Hong Kong route

Air_NiuginiANDREW CURRAN | Simple Flying | Edited

CAIRNS - Air Niugini is ready and willing to take over the Cairns – Hong Kong route according to a report in the Cairns Post.

Air Niugini’s managing director Alan Milne, who has been in Cairns discussing the option, said Air Niugini saw opportunities on the route and had the capacity to service it.

It’s a surprise move by the small airline from Papua New Guinea. To the dismay of many Cairns residents, Cathay Pacific is discontinuing its Cairns service in October after 25 years servicing the route.

International services into Cairns have been in decline for some years. But Air Niugini has been a Cairns stalwart, the north Queensland city long being a popular getaway spot for expats and mobile locals in Port Moresby.

Continue reading "Air Niugini eyes axed Cathay Pacific Cairns – Hong Kong route" »


PNG & the unsolved mystery of Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart posing by her plane in Long Beach  California  1930
Amelia Earhart posing by her plane in Long Beach, California, 1930

NAITH LATI

PORT MORESBY - While experts have done a tremendous job trying to determine what led to the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, the world’s most celebrated female aviator, there are people in the Pacific Islands who have their own ideas about what happened after her last port of call in Lae, Papua New Guinea.

From 1937 until now, aviation investigators have failed to establish any leads in the search for Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan.

But the mystery continues to engage attention. Many people have invested much time and money in seeking to solve this enigma.

In the 1930s, Earhart was nothing short of a legend. She put herself into the history books as the first woman to fly solo over the Atlantic, the first woman to fly solo non-stop across the United States and the first person to fly the hazardous route between Hawaii and California.

Continue reading "PNG & the unsolved mystery of Amelia Earhart" »


'Husat i dai pinis' - The case of the coffin in transit

Guari strip
Typical PNG bush airstrip at Guari in Central Province (Matt McLaughlin)

ROSS WILKINSON

MELBOURNE - For all of us who were kiaps, life brought us a range of experiences, some serious, some tragic, some mundane and others that were extremely humorous.

I was always mindful that if I ever lost my sense of humour it was time to resign.

In this vein I recall an incident when I was a young Cadet Patrol Officer at Kabwum and was despatched on patrol.

I was flown to the remote airstrip at Indagen and, on completion of the patrol, collected by aircraft at a pre-arranged date and time from the same strip.

Came the day, I was back at the airstrip with my collection of patrol equipment, boxes, chair, table, lantern, the works, all neatly stacked on the hard-standing area.

After what seemed like hours, I heard an aircraft in the distance.  It circled and came into land.

Continue reading "'Husat i dai pinis' - The case of the coffin in transit" »


The pink aeroplane, government paperwork & PNG airstrips

Rowles
Ian Rowles poses near one of his later aircraft, also a Cessna 185, at Lae airport in 1974

PAUL OATES

GOLD COAST - How do write about someone who died a long time ago and yet who is still so alive in one’s memory? Start at the beginning I suppose.

In 1969, as a liklik kiap (Cadet Patrol Officer) at Pindiu Patrol Post on the Huon Peninsula, I distinctly recall the arrival on the airstrip of a bright pink Cessna 185. “Who the hell is that,” I asked the OIC?

“That’s Rowlesy,” I was told. “They call his plane the Pink Panther.

Ii was easy to see why. The aircraft had been painted a cheerful candy pink. It stood out like the proverbial country pink-painted dunny.

Continue reading "The pink aeroplane, government paperwork & PNG airstrips" »


Remembering the search for the missing RAAF Caribou

Iroquois on makeshift helipad
Iroquois helicopter on makeshift helipad near site of the downed Caribou (Ian Loftus)

PAUL OATES

GOLD COAST – It was August 1972 and I was returning from a patrol through the Yamap-Hotte-Musim census division between Wau/Bulolo and Salamaua.

We had left the forest behind and walked through the kunai for number of hours before arriving at Salamaua. Crikey it was hot!

I arrived at a Lutheran Mission guest house overlooking Salamaua and was given some cool lemon sherbet by the mission people who were holidaying there. I was dehydrated and couldn’t get enough of it.

Camping overnight in the Namasu store that night, we waited for a boat to take us to Lae. I tried to sleep among the bags of copra and hoped the rats that leapt between the bags all night wouldn’t bite me. There was also a pungent odour emitting from rancid coconuts that made it very pleasant to get going in the morning.

The coastal boat arrived on schedule and we boarded and set out for Lae. Arriving at Lae wharf, I telephoned the sub district office and the assistant district commissioner allocated a Toyota and driver to get us back to Wau the next day.

Driving through the Mumeng sub district, we noticed aircraft lights towards Bulolo and by the time we drove past the Bulolo road it looked like every aircraft in PNG was flying around Wau. The afternoon sky was lit up with flashing aircraft navigation lights.

Continue reading "Remembering the search for the missing RAAF Caribou" »


Report says Air Niugini crash ‘an accident’ but no cause yet

Air Niugini crash schematic
Illustration of the Air Niugini flight crash site in Chuuk Lagoon. CVR = cockpit voice recorder (FSM Civil Aviation)

KEVIN KERRIGAN | The Guam Daily Post

TAMUNING - The Air Niugini flight that crashed on approach to the Chuuk International Airport on 28 September fell 1,500 feet short of the runway, a preliminary report states.

When the Boeing 737 hit the water, the main landing gear was torn off and the rear fuselage behind the wing "fractured during the impact sequence," the report states.

The report was compiled by the Federated States of Micronesia Division of Civil Aviation with the assistance of the Papua New Guinea Accident Investigation Commission, and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.

They classified the crash as "an accident," however their preliminary report reaches no conclusions about the cause.

Continue reading "Report says Air Niugini crash ‘an accident’ but no cause yet" »


‘The most rewarding flying in PNG’: Diary of a medevac

Loading the injured woman into the plane at Simogu (Dave Rogers)
Loading the injured woman into the plane at Simogu (Dave Rogers)

DAVE ROGERS | MAF

GOROKA –Of all the flying I do in Papua New Guinea, I find medevac flights the most rewarding.

MAF flights benefit the communities we serve in many ways, but nothing has a more immediate and tangible impact than a medevac.

They are usually some of the most operationally difficult flights to manage given they come up at short notice, in the middle of our flying program, and often late in the day when weather or daylight is an issue.

This makes it all the more rewarding when you get it to work.

My most recent case was no different.

I was making my first stop on my second trip in the middle of a busy day when I was approached by a man asking if I could fly a badly injured woman to Goroka.

Continue reading "‘The most rewarding flying in PNG’: Diary of a medevac" »


A long day's flying around some of PNG's backblocks

Siobhain-Ryan-Cole
Siobhain and Ryan Cole and the beloved GA8 Airvan - keeping the people of PNG connected

SIOBHAIN COLE | MAF Papua New Guinea

Being a Missionary Aviation Fellowship pilot family based at a remote outstation like Telefomin or Rumginae includes aircraft maintenance and grocery shopping trips for the family every third month to MAF’s main base at Mt Hagen. After coming back as a married couple from an extended time of leave and home assignment, Siobhain Cole traded her role as MAF PNG’s ground operations manager to being a pilot’s wife at an outstation.

She still does operations project work and flight bookings for the department she previously led, but she also has to look after the wellbeing of her pilot husband, Ryan, who flies the Twin Otter as a first officer and also the single crew GA8 Airvan, both out of Telefomin where they are one of three pilot families.

In the past, Siobhain orchestrated other pilot families’ schedules to come and go out of Mt Hagen for shopping and aircraft maintenance trips. Now she is experiencing the joys and challenges of such trips, like unexpectedly getting stuck in Mt Hagen for an extra night or two and not necessarily getting home in one go. Here she shares some of her experiences of a recent trip to Mt Hagen and back home to Telefomin, a good 90 minutes flight away, close to the western border of PNG.

Continue reading "A long day's flying around some of PNG's backblocks" »


Sir Reginald Barnewall, Pacific aviator dies at 93

ROB PARER

BRISBANE - Sir Reginald Barnewall, a descendant of Anglo-Norman knights and the founder of Polynesian Airlines, has died at the age of 93.

Sir Reginald served in Papua New Guinea during World War II as a lieutenant with the Royal Australian Engineers and Z Special Unit AIF. He lived at Mt Tamborine in Queensland.

Continue reading "Sir Reginald Barnewall, Pacific aviator dies at 93" »


MAF makes largest purchase of aircraft to serve bush strips

STAFF REPORTER | Aviation Week 

Cessna Caravan 208 turboprop
The Cessna Caravan 208 turborpop has become the backbone of MAF's bush flying operation in PNG

NEW YORK - Mission Aviation Fellowship International recently placed an order for five Cessna Caravan 208 turboprops for its operations in Papua New Guinea, with the option for an additional two aircraft.

The order represented MAF International's single largest aircraft investment and the five aircraft are scheduled to be delivered this year and create an all-Caravan fleet in the country.

MAF has been serving the most isolated communities in PNG since 1951. It enables thousands of aid workers, development specialists, mission workers, doctors and nurses, teachers and water engineers to deliver food, medical supplies and relief, water and education.

During the last decade MAF has slowly been expanding its three-Caravan operation so the aircraft are now flown into 95% of the more than 230 remote bush airstrips.

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Bush pilot in PNG: ‘In the job I’m a pilot not a woman’

LandingGLENYS WATSON as told to Harriet Fitch Little | Financial Times

LONDON - For 10 years, until summer 2017, I was at home with my kids in Hamilton, New Zealand — I’ve got four daughters who are 10, eight, six and three now.

Six years ago, my dad passed away from cancer when he was only 59. That made my husband and I do quite a lot of reflecting on the fact the time we have on Earth is pretty short; we have to make sure that what we’re doing is fulfilling, and that it counts.

Before having children I had worked as a flight instructor, and carried out an air ambulance service for the local district health board. I’d heard about the Mission Aviation Fellowship when I was doing my pilot training and thought it sounded really cool.

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Captain Beverly is PNG's first woman to captain jet aircraft

Captain Beverly Pakii & crew
Captain Beverley Pakii (right) and crew ready for her first scheduled jet flight

KEITH JACKSON | Air Niugini Media Release

PORT MORESBY - Captain Beverly Pakii has become the first female pilot in Papua New Guinea to captain a jet aircraft after attaining her command on an Air Niugini Fokker.

This achievement enables Captain Pakii to command domestic and international flights operated by Fokker 70 and Fokker 100 aircraft.

Her first commercial flight was on 4 January captaining a Fokker 100 aircraft from Port Moresby to Lae and back with First Officer Taylor Yama.

Captain Pakii, from Enga-Morobe parentage, in 2004 became the first female pilot to be sponsored into Air Niugini’s pilot cadet program, in 2015 becoming the first female pilot under the program to command Dash 8 aircraft.

She acknowledged the investment that Air Niugini had made in her career and gaver an encouraging message to fellow female pilots and aspiring female pilots.

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When PNG led the world in the delivery of air freight

ROB PARER

Junkers aircraft serviced the Lae- Bulolo route
A photo of a German Junkers aircraft that serviced the Lae-Bulolo route in the 1930s

BRISBANE – Way back in 1931, Papua New Guinea set a world record in the amount of air cargo carried – 2,607 passengers and 3,947 tonnes of freight.

The discovery of gold in the Bulolo Valley of New Guinea saw a rush of aircraft and pilots to Lae to service the goldfields – equipment and supplies in, gold out and passengers both ways.

Supplies, which had previously been carried in by carriers at prohibitive cost, were now transported by aircraft.

In the first 12 months of operations they carried 250,000kg of cargo and hundreds of passengers, but this paled into insignificance when German Junkers transports were purchased by mining companies to transport dredges.

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