Don't remember what was the steepest strip when I was there but one was 17.5 percent. Fane must have close to that as it was steep as hell when you touched down but levelled out at the top and turned right.
WRT closed airstrips; there must be several dozen now closed compared to the golden years of GA up there in the 60s, 70s and 80s. I have a mate who works in Alotau and he asked me about a strip called Agaun-now closed for many years. It was positioned in a beautiful grassy bowl of a valley (highest village in the Milne Bay Province). Fuel, tinpis, rice, sugar etc etc are hauled up from the coast by porter now. He walked there from the coast and it took him two days. There is still the 80ish old expat priest there, he tells me.
Progress in PNG!! This must be the same story a hundredfold for many villages compared to two or three decades ago. Remind me again-who is the biggest aid donor to PNG? And where does that aid go?
Talking about ageing priests, there were several I encountered over the years in really remote places like Kamulai. Those guys were really stalwarts and I wonder if the Catholic church has 'resupplied' those missions.