Must be 20 years ago now...I is getting old
I was carrying out a daily inspection on our company C185 and noticed a tiny, itsibitsi hydraulic weep from one of the brakes....she'll be right me thinks. Loaded up with 'stuff' and with a new company pilot in the RHS (1st few days in country) I taxi out at Chimbu enroute to Nomane (Central Highlands PNG).
Now Nomane was one of our more challenging mountain strips in an area strewn with mountain strips...definately 'one way' the strip started on the side of a deep gorge and ran gently up a 5% slope before turning around a 20+ degree corner and becoming a 20% slope with a cross slope (out camber/away from direction of turn) of about 3%. Down each side of the strip was a very deep rain barret...maybe 6' deep and 4-5' across...they had a cute little bridge you taxied across to access the parking bay. Elevation was about 7000' MSL and DA was more like 10-11000'.
Turning finals and pattering the approach I tested the brakes before passing the point on finals where no go around was possible due to surrounding terrain...worked good...landed in a nice, near stalled 3 pointer and the brake goes to the floor
...got us stopped and managed, somehow, to taxi back towards the parking bay but was not game to try crossing the bridge.
I Decided it was prudent to return to Chimbu empty...just me and my mate...so contemplated how that may be achieved...there was a crosswind of about 7-10 kts from the right on takeoff...which would, I Hoped, balance with the left to right transverse slope and we would be able to stay straight...you guessed it the left brake was the problem. I figured that between tailwheel steering and rudder I could keep it straight...so we taxied up to the very top of the strip...it was about 400m long...and parked across the slope while I gathered myself...taking a deep breath I poked the aircraft downhill and let it roll without much power initially just using the tailwheel steering...we groundlooped....We remained in the middle of the 20m wide airstrip but ended up rolling backwards down the slope...full power got us back up to the top and parked across the slope again.
My mate, who had been gently suggesting we remain and call for an engineer, now found voice again...nope that might take until tomorrow...we aint staying here until tomorrow.
I theorised
that the problem was not powering up quick enough and getting the rudder working...so I poked us down hill and shoved the throttle in full...we did another groundloop...this time a doozy...musta spun through 270 degrees before the tail pendulumed downhill and we again started 'reversing' down the slope.
Parked back at the top I was out of ideas...nearly...we couldn't taxi down the hill so I shut down. Now the whole village has been watching my machinations with rapt fascination so I whistled em all up to the top of the strip. They responded 'with alacrity'...it was like a scene from Zulu dawn
After describing what I wanted to do, in Melanesian Pidgeon, we 'walked' the C185 down to the bottom of the steep bit...opposite the little bridge...that left <100m to the end of the strip...and a 1500-2000' verticle drop into the gorge.
"Come on we're outa here!"
"We're what?"
Now I should say at this point that charging off cliff edge strips at something less than flying speed was common in PNG...but my new pilot didn't know that...yet...and I saw no reason to enlighten him...I was starting to have fun
We saddled up and I started the engine...the new guy was starting to whimper...I poured on the power and the lack of transverse slope made directional control easy with just tailwheel steering...I had just started to raise the tail as we charged off the edge of the cliff and dropped into the gorge to build up flying speed...flew off home and landed in a neat 3 pointer, nil wind, and spent the next hour fixing the errant brake.
I learned about daily inspections from that
