Relics from the Sixties
Have seen a few posts from 60's territorians recently - Animalclub, tinpis and sixtiesrelic ...so thought I'd check in too.
Spent 1961-1970 up there, with a few gaps in Brisbane. Originally was a didiman based at Korn Farm Research Stn, (just toward Minj from what's now Kagamuga/Mt Hagen airport.
When I located to Hagen in March 1961, the strip was thru the middle of town- and it was pretty treacherous. After a '3 landed, a tractor with trailer load of river rocks and gravel would trundle up the strip and fill in all the ruts and gouges.
Anyway, the decision was made by the DC,Tom Ellis to get the strip out of town, and the big decision was - where. Ogelbeng was never going to be any good, so they looked down valley.
In Sept '61, I was one of the workgang supervisors when the whole of Kagamuga was cut to the ground. There were thousands of auli on the job - the noise was earsplitting as each line tried to outdo the other in both song and work.....mostly song - what's changed?
Then in late September or early October, they couldn't help themselves - and up she went in smoke. Well, being at a lovely cool and drier time of year, there was a fair sort of inversion in the Waghi, so the whole valley filled up with smoke...right down to Minj and Nondugl. I heard from the local agents that Hagen was closed on and off for several days due low vis. What price a GPS/NPA?
It was in about September '61 that we had a really cold spell of weather in the Western Highlands, and there was snow on Giluwe and Hagen for several days. Flew up and around there with Peter Hurst in a TAL 180 - fantastic photoshoot but unfortunately all long rotted away with mould.
Probably the most memorable trip I did in those early days was in a TAA Otter with veteran Capt Bill Sherwood. Milk run from Hagen to Baiyer to Wapenamunda to Wabag, to Laiagam, to Tambul and back to Hagen. Absolutely spectacular scenery. I was based as the didiman at Wabag for a few months and spent a week or two also at Wapenamunda - which I reckon just had to be the most spec location in all of PNG. That, and a few trips with Hursty and Col Hey in TAL 180's and 185's and I was hooked on flying forever.
So - off to Brisbane and back with a licence at the end of 1963.
It's a small world. In 1996, the Beverley Soaring Society asked me to do several BFR's for their tuggies using my c170. One of the starters was....surprise, surprise - Colin Hey. Having flown a 170, 180, and 185's for TAL from 1960 - he flew the 170 as though it was only 30 days - not years - ago. I just folded my arms and enjoyed the ride. Believe me, that's not a common reaction to checks in a taildragger.
Even tho' it was 35 years ago that I left, the flying images of PNG are as vivid now as ever.
I'm 65 this year, and still love my little bit of instructing. Nothing too onerous - just a bit of tailwheel, low level and formation in RV's...as befits an active retiree!
Happy days,