John and Chuck. The Nomad tail problem must have been known well before 1990. I recall seeing Army/PNGDF Nomads in the PNGDF Hangar at the old Lae town airport, pre 1985, missing the tail cone and feathers, which had been shipped back to GAF for modification.
Chuck, I think there were six civil N24's operated in PNG, three each by IAT and Douglas. I recall the news paper announcing that Douglas Airways would license build Nomads in Port Moresby, however it wasn't many months later that Bikkies got quite irate at the mention of a Nomad.
Gaunty, I suspect yours and my favourite aircraft, the Cessna 208/208B will well and truly outlift a Nomad. Certainly, over a 300 nm sector, a Caravan will carry a greater payload, at higher speed, than the average DHC6-300 Otter (Empty weight 3,700 kg, MTOW 5,700 kg) due to the Caravan's far lower fuel burn.
Chuck, I recall DHC6-200 VH-GKR/P2-RDB when it was stripped out for the Kiunga - Tabubil shuttles (prior to completion of the road) had an empty weight (sans seats) of 2,986 kg, MTOW of 5,251 kg and disposeable load of 2,265 kg! What a great machine......