Troppo
"How come they stopped using Porters in PNG? Did Talair make money out of them?"
Talair inherited them (one, P2-SEA?) from M@cair and exchanged a piston Porter air frame from the Catholic Mission for an overhauled engine. They were not financially viable and we made a decision to quit single engine aircraft. They were too slow, and with the PT6A-20 engine (upgraded I think from a -6), the engine HSI's were short lived and expensive. So slow in fact, Maxie departed Goroka for Lae on one occasion and returned 40 minutes later for more fuel and to wait until the easterly wind subsided a little!
Also, from memory the
legal max TO weight was around 4,800 pounds, which limited
legal payload. (Air America operated them at 6,200 pounds max TO weight and I think the US military at 7,000 pounds max TO weight).
Besides, pilots used to break them at places where recovery was very difficult and expensive - like Karimui!!
M@cair pranged one in the Gulf, near Kerema I think it was, before we bought M@cair out. Can't recall the pilots name, but he was badly injured. A passenger was also either injured or killed. If I remember correctly, the young bull they were carrying was also put down? It's over 30 years ago.......
They were a special mission STOL aircraft, not viable on normal air charter operations. I shared the Boss's view, we simply didn't need a one off, especially with up to fourteen Twin Otters filling the same role.
The Tykes at Wewak had a few Dorniers - Archbishop Leo Arkfield used to fly one - but I'll bet you didn't know that at one stage, Talair also had one Dornier DO27, but it didn't last very long. From memory, that was around the mid 60's?
At one stage we considered a twin Dornier - a DO28? - with twin geared engines on sponsons. The look was very brief before interest was definately lost forever!!