this thread is becoming one of those wonderful books full of yarns which could never have happened in the real world back home in Oz.
A story passed on to me by a former lutheran mission pilot about Kaintiba:
Shortly after VH-AMS was purchased I had it in Lae for a short period of time. Kaintiba was nearly it's demise. The Kalaboose line was working on the Airstrip. As I lined up on final they drove the tractor towing a concrete roller down the middle of the Airstrip. As I was far enough back I had just enough room to turn in the valley. The next day as I was on down wind they drove the tractor off to the right hand side of the 1300ft. airstrip, about half way down when I was on short final, committed to land with no wear else to go without crashing. The National driving the tractor pulled the pin out of the tractor drawbar which released the concrete roller and it started rolling across the airstrip. The National initially chased it then looked at me and turned back, then tried again to catch it and realized I was very close so he headed in the other direction again. I was trying to work out where the roller would be as I basically had to land beside it or I would have gone over the top end of the airstrip. I managed to touchdown narrowerly missing it, but then I had to try and get back on the center of the airstrip so I wouldn't go over the side. The airstrip was wet and I ended up sliding side ways with the brakes locked, getting back on the center line and managed to stop at the top of the airstrip. The thing that saved me was the 17% slope.
Kaintiba 1987
