Even Junior didn't want it, but it came down to either pay 2 million U.S. and get it with a spare engine, or half a million and get nothing.. Horses for Courses really, we were the driver meat in the sandwich who had to try and make it work when it arrived. Even Milesey was sent down to lend a hand.... We were getting a better run out of ours, because of the long sectors, than Bushies were, operating theirs on short hops up and down the Queensland coast at the time. It flew mainly Honiara - Munda - Kieta (320 miles)-return, daily, sometimes twice daily to connect with Air Pacific's BAC 111 then 737-200 to and from Brisbane (cheaper for the copper miners than going over though Moresby and down to Brisbane with Air Niugini), also gave a connection to Vanuatu and Fiji (and N.Z.) on those days, and twice weekly Honiara - Santo -Vila (about 700 miles) -return, as well as Charters to Brisbane, Nadi and Nauru, which were mainly at night because the aircraft was committed to its regular schedule during daylight hours. With an Islander based at Gizo to feed Western traffic to it both ways as well, that helped keep the loads up. When it was out of service for a year in '85, we operated a Bandit sent down, but it didn't carry any more pax than the Metro over those routes, was slower, cruised lower, and didn't have the good autopilot or Omega for S.P. work. Mind you, the strips used were all longer ones, International Airports of Entry, the only grass strip used by the Metro sometimes was Kira Kira. I like Bandits, have plenty of time on them, and can understand how they did so well. Of the four types evaluated for the first turbine, KingAir, Twin Otter, Bandeirante and Metro before selection, they would all have been compromised in some way by the route requirement for number of seats, Stol versus Speed/Range, unpressurised versus pressurised, etc. No, I couldn't see a Metro 2 being used to the same places in P.N.G. as the Bandit was so successfully, for so long. (Perhaps with the optional JATO Rocket installed in the tail, and it and the Water/Meth used for every takeoff at altitude.. just joking..
)Comes back to what you're given, and the environment you operate in. Always got plenty of stick from our brothers over the border because we were operating a one-off in the organisation.. But the ordinary drivers had no say in the selection,..
Metro 2 at Kieta, with PNG Customs, Immigration and Quarantine officers, and refuellers.