This has brought back terrible memories for me. TAA in their wisdom??? checked me out as a check and training Captain at the grand ol age of 27 and the very first pilot I checked out, nine days later flew into a mountain in the same valley. The TAA community was shocked, I needless to say was gutted. He had everything going for him, intelligent, calm, interested, a good pilot, father of two, happy, and to make matters worse on board he had nine catholic nuns mainly from local regions. It was in the seventies, his last name was Mckillop and it was a Twotter. I have spent countless hours going over everything, how he reacted, his behaviour, his ability to fly the aircraft, his personna, there was no reason to fail this bloke and yet he and his pax died. Even now in quiet moments I go over it again, (especially now). Everything Chimbo posts here is correct, and remember we were wallowing around in DC3's as well, and a taildragger aint much fun in some of those strips, but like most pilots who flew in PNG I would not swap it for anything, but will take the death of that pilot and his passengers to my grave.