Got an email tonight suggesting IDL was possibly sabotaged...cut control cables...that'd mean ol' Ian David Leslie was murdered...Mal been experiencing some of the same with his choppers...was a time not so long ago that the natives wouldn't dream of touching a balus.
I guess PNG just keeps sliding down hill...we can hang on to our memories of what fun we had in our misspent youth but PNG is a different place.
EDIT: No Oz...lucked out would have been no power substation right where I needed to land...or being close enough to make Jackson's...we were very lucky the hook bent straight on the cable anchor...ever seen the road surface from 30' up pointing straight down? I do remember the PMV, which was approaching rapidly headon before hitting the cable, skidding off the side of the road in a cloud of dust after being presented with a plan view...so I guess that makes hitting the cable lucky too...better than a head on with a PMV full of highlanders.
How we had enough airspeed after hitting the cable for me to still get it down on it's wheels is something that has exercised my mind from time to time.
...but must maintain a sense of humour about these things