I was lucky (very) to survive my first solo revenue flight in PNG
A charter in a 206 to the Banz races with four Bank Johnies from GKA and pick up another pax ex Chimbu
The weather was an ultra ****e morning and my trainer The Prawn, took one look at the weather and very wisely decided I could go on my own as his wife needed to be taken shopping
I got lost over cloud pretty well straight after takeoff.With wheels in tops at 10000' somewhere near Chimbu, I let down through a small hole to find bugger all but rocks and trees! While climbing back up in the now rapidly diminishing hole I caught sight of Chimbu through a crack, dived in landed and picked up the extra pax. The four others by this time were paralysed with fear as away we continued on down a very marginal Wahgi morning to Banz .
I spent a miserable day at the races contemplating the afternoon trip back
Flash back to a few weeks prior I'm on a famil flight into Omkali
The pilot has been in country for a while and I'm wondering on approach into Omakali whether I would ever be able to see through all this cloud and rain like him
I sorta realised he couldn't see either
after we smacked into the strip about halfway up going like a bat out of hell towards the cliff at the end of the parking bay. No braking as the strip was like a butchers finger, but he had the good sense to initiate a ground loop and the impact was taken by the wing on my side
Couple of years later a chap tried the same thing and killed himself and his passenger
That and several other hairy ones left me with a fondness for an SP