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What a shame, Lang.
3 weeks 5 days ago - 3 weeks 5 days ago #255392
by Lang
Replied by Lang on topic What a shame, Lang.
I was certainly born too late. I had a fly of one of those restored Junkers in Holland about 30 years ago but full time in the cold snow and ice? Not my cup of tea.
I had my fun in this old stuff. Clip of arriving in a pissing down tropic rain storm in Jakarta from Singapore on the way to Australia.
As far a bush flying goes I had my fill with 6 years in New Guinea flying Pilatus Porters, Nomads and DC3's. This was FUN even though the Great Reaper swung his scythe many times I managed to duck.
Here is a Porter in New Guinea. This is shot on the Indonesian side of the border - "Salamat pagi" good morning - but all the same strips. It is a God-botherer organisation but very high professional standards and the latest equipment and still charge full commercial rates.. There are hundreds of these strips many shorter and steeper than this. In the Army Porters we went everywhere while the commercial blokes tended to stay in their own district a lot more. I did a lot of moonlighting in civilian Porters belonging to Macair out of Lae. I often would step out of an Army Porter and walk across the runway and do a couple of coffee shuttles before dark in the civil aircraft. Fantastic pay ($20 per hour cash in hand tax free when the Australian average wage was $120 a week before tax) and the Army had no problem so long as it did not interfere with my real job or take work away from a civilian (they were always short of commercial turbine-rated pilots).
This bloke has a bit of class but I often took a load of supplies in and passengers out. Because of cargo, no seats. No worries, just get everyone to sit in a crowd cross-legged on the floor and throw a cargo net over the lot. Sometimes if I was hauling coffee out, there would be a space about a foot high between the bags and the roof. The keen punters would lay prostrate in this space and if they were short I could get 4 people in this luxury sleeper compartment. They were more than happy to pay full fare for these economy class seating arrangements.
I had my fun in this old stuff. Clip of arriving in a pissing down tropic rain storm in Jakarta from Singapore on the way to Australia.
As far a bush flying goes I had my fill with 6 years in New Guinea flying Pilatus Porters, Nomads and DC3's. This was FUN even though the Great Reaper swung his scythe many times I managed to duck.
Here is a Porter in New Guinea. This is shot on the Indonesian side of the border - "Salamat pagi" good morning - but all the same strips. It is a God-botherer organisation but very high professional standards and the latest equipment and still charge full commercial rates.. There are hundreds of these strips many shorter and steeper than this. In the Army Porters we went everywhere while the commercial blokes tended to stay in their own district a lot more. I did a lot of moonlighting in civilian Porters belonging to Macair out of Lae. I often would step out of an Army Porter and walk across the runway and do a couple of coffee shuttles before dark in the civil aircraft. Fantastic pay ($20 per hour cash in hand tax free when the Australian average wage was $120 a week before tax) and the Army had no problem so long as it did not interfere with my real job or take work away from a civilian (they were always short of commercial turbine-rated pilots).
This bloke has a bit of class but I often took a load of supplies in and passengers out. Because of cargo, no seats. No worries, just get everyone to sit in a crowd cross-legged on the floor and throw a cargo net over the lot. Sometimes if I was hauling coffee out, there would be a space about a foot high between the bags and the roof. The keen punters would lay prostrate in this space and if they were short I could get 4 people in this luxury sleeper compartment. They were more than happy to pay full fare for these economy class seating arrangements.
Last edit: 3 weeks 5 days ago by Lang.
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3 weeks 5 days ago - 3 weeks 5 days ago #255402
by Lang
Replied by Lang on topic What a shame, Lang.
This is a list of major accidents in PNG (half the size of NSW) during the short time I was there. Only fatal or injury accidents or aircraft written off. In that time there was probably upwards of 50 accidents that resulted in aircraft being damaged - a lot of them should have been written off but the insurance paid for a fully restored machine out of a high time workhorse. An aircraft is its identity tag (VIN tag) and you can take a tag and build an entire aircraft out of parts and it will still be the same aircraft. Unlike crashed cars built up of second hand parts every nut and bolt added to an aircraft (new or second hand) has a paper trail back to the manufacturer so it is a very safe practice. Hevi-Lift Helicopters were in high demand to carry the smashed planes out of the shrubbery back to the workshop.
20% pilot bad decisions, bad flying, aircraft fault in good weather. 80% pilot bad decisions, bad flying in bad weather. If you survived the first 3 months you had good odds for a happy life if you kept your guard up.
You will note that Ansett and TAA share equal billing.
www.baaa-acro.com/country/papua-new-guinea?page=8
20% pilot bad decisions, bad flying, aircraft fault in good weather. 80% pilot bad decisions, bad flying in bad weather. If you survived the first 3 months you had good odds for a happy life if you kept your guard up.
You will note that Ansett and TAA share equal billing.
www.baaa-acro.com/country/papua-new-guinea?page=8
Last edit: 3 weeks 5 days ago by Lang.
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