TT ... Early 1985, I was on an overnight at Woitape, where a tourist came down with food poisoning. He'd only arrived that afternoon and came down with it before dinner time, so it wasn't as if he'd gotten it at the Owen Stanley Lodge. But, he was quite ill all the same and it was arranged that I'd fly him over to the Fane Hospital Clinic first thing next morning.
Got off at first light with a still quite ill young bloke and someone else to act as nursing aid for the short flight. Well, I was in a hurry to get him on the ground at Fane, so went straight in rather than make an "investigation circuit" first. After all, I didn't want the bloke to throw up in the cleanest, neatest Aztruck that has ever been on the P2 register!
Touchdown was normal, at the right speed, but I immediately felt an acceleration. I had only increased the power as normal, in order to climb the hill after touchdown, but this speed increase wasn't due to that. I began to lose directional control.
That's when it dawned on me that an "investigative circuit" would have warned me of a muddy strip! So now the Aztruck is just about rocketing up the hill and the Father's House is starting to loom large in the windscreen, at the top of the hill. And it's very solidly constructed, of course...
The power is at idle now and I've used differential braking to keep the aircraft somewhere on the runway. But the braking isn't having any effect on the speed at all, except maybe to increase it as the wheels are sliding along the top of the mud. This wasn't looking good at all.
There being no other choice, went for a ground loop. So now the aeroplane is starting to careen up the hill sideways. With bare inches to spare, the Aztec came to a halt ... the port wing aimed directly at the Father's House!
It's safe to say that I took an object lesson away with me on that day! Oh yeah, the nurse at Fane (Sister Mary, I think) found some medication to administer to the ill tourist and he soon came right. While that was happening, I had a big bacon and egg brekkie at the Father's House ... followed by a pretty good sized glass of wine - for medicinal purposes only, ya understand...
Veg ... I'd never have guessed
THAT ONE mate!
Better you than me! I don't think
Sharpie gets on here very often these days, so we may need input from
Chimbu Chuck now.
Paging
Chuck ...!
