In the year 2000 despite starting my career on single engine aircraft, like many young pilots I was finding the search for twin engine experience even in the Northern Territory tough going. After an extensive search for twin engine opportunities, I got in touch with Geoff Thiele of North Coast Aviation.
Geoff was affable and clearly very experienced. He indicated that given that I had some territory experience, I would likely start on the Islander if I chose to come up to PNG and have a look. He also suggested that I might buy a return ticket for my trip over in the event that I didn't like it. What's not to like I presumed!
Upon arrival in Lae, Geoff was kind enough to offer me a familiarisation flight up in to the Kabwum Valley. The Kabwum valley contains a number of hill tribe villages nominally four thousand feet above sea level. It is called a valley because it is surrounded on all sides by mountainous terrain as high as fifteen thousand feet.
Climbing out of Nadzab was both spectacular and daunting. As we approached a lower point in the surrounding high terrain known as "20 mile gap" we entered solid cloud cover.
With a fully loaded Islander struggling to climb at almost ten thousand feet above sea level we were indicating an airspeed of 65 knots. I couldn't help but notice the trees rushing past us no more that one thousand feet below despite not being able to see anything in front of us.
Having been awed by the view up to that point, I failed to realise that Geoff had been using a Garmin 100 GPS receiver to determine his position through the "Gap", this is not a device that was, is or ever has been approved for use in Instrument Flight Conditions and in the even higher surrounding terrain such as we had, there are limitations with its ability to receive a satellite signal and determine an accurate position in any case.
Upon our return to Lae I asked Geoff about an NCA pilot that had been killed in the previous months, there was a picture of him on the back of one of the office doors in his aviator sunglasses. Geoff was candid enough to point out that this young man was killed on his second flight in to a particular airstrip for which he was to have been checked out three times. He crashed all alone. When asked why he wasn't supervised three times in to the airstrip, as was the requirement, Geoff responded by saying, "He was a good operator, he looked like he'd be fine, I guess it's all water under the bridge now". I've never forgotten those words.
I didn't have the privilege of knowing David or the circumstances that surround David's accident, nevertheless like many others, reading about it sent chills up my spine, particularly when I saw a YouTube video of him performing such beautiful music as a child prodigy of eleven years.
On reflection, it seemed strange that this accident would be in any way more poignant than the stories of the many other young pilots that have lost their lives in similar circumstances. Perhaps David's extraordinary humanity was highlighted so eloquently through his other passion in a way that simply tells us of yet another tragic story a very different way.
I never thought I would take Geoff's advice and use the return ticket to Australia. Indeed following the collapse of Ansett, the struggle to gain hours back home didn't get any easier and I sometimes wondered if I had made the right decision. Another PNG pilot had suggested that the flying in PNG was all a matter of setting your own personal minimum standards.
Maybe the only thing I had going for me was that I didn't trust myself to operate in such an environment. Perhaps if Geoff hadn't of shown me how things were done, I too might also have chosen adventure over comfort and familiarity.
My deepest condolences to all him knew him.