Capt.Vege
The only VH-KEN's that I know of were a C170 in Lae, about 1965, which suffered significant tailplane deformation due to impact with skydiver who had just exited. Driver did a fantastic job to get it down in one piece where it needed rear end rebuild. I think the diver was OK. That 170 must have been written off soon after for the KEN rego to come up again.
One of my 60's peers was killed in Rabaul about 1967 when he flew fair into a diver who had opened early, and caught a big uplift back up into the Cu's. He was in the habit of operating the c172 a la Stuka, not always VFR. Killed the diver too. Very bad luck. Pilot was a former CFI of SPAC,62-64 era, and I had some C180 time with him in VH-KER, which SPAC owned at that time.
The most recent VH-KEN was a PA-18 Cub in the station country of WA, which I used for training about 3 years ago, and it was later sold off - back to the good 'ol USA. We seem to be losing a few good aircraft back to the states, but this will cease if/when the A$ climbs above 60c.
Pleased that many of you liked the old photos. Unfortunately, when you're young and incredibly thoughtless, you forget to take photos of the most important things...like people. Like most of you, I seem to have moved camp about every 5 years, and thats also a quick way to lose your old photos. Fungus got many of them back in late 60's.
Breaks your heart to hear how the infrastructure of PNG is slowly breaking down - shades of Africa! Makes you wonder just how much longer we should be funding much of their budget?
cheers,