When I turned up in late Dec 86 I was a 350 hr pilot. In January 87, a week or so after arriving I was offered a full time job and by the time I had 450 hours, a month or so after starting, I was flying the Islander more than the C185.
I left in December 87 and joined Talair with 1200 hrs of which 600+ was Islander, and never looked back...within 18 months I had 2400 hours and was left seat Twin Otter and on about PNG30K(AUS$45K+)+house+transport to/from work+fed while at work+full ID travel+annual leave fare.
Every 3 years, until the PNG Govt abolished the Gratuity system in the mid 90s I picked up about PNGK23,000.00 and sent it south which equated to A$34000.00.
Those days were blissfull...the law and order problems were probably not a LOT better than now but we were payed well, flew well maintained aircraft(mostly) under an excellent C&T system and had LOTS of FUN
PNGK9500? Mac was a mate and I knew he wasn't paying big money but that's pathetic.
Chuck