Originally Posted by
Unusual-Attitude
A few years ago, the ‘capt’ of the png Gov king Air P2-PNG was ramped in Cairns and found to be without either a valid medical or IPC...these ‘little details’ would barely warrant more than a raised eyebrow over a cold sp in the moresby derro club to anyone who’s been up there any amount of time. It’s all part of the ‘experience’.
In the good ol' days you could swing by the DAME office in POM on your way out on tour break and the receptionist would have your Class One medical typed, pre-signed and ready to go. No need to see the doctor, he was out of country at a "seminar". Or if you forgot to do the medical when it was due, no problem, just start your next tour without a current medical certificate in hand. It could wait a month until the end of your tour and you could get it then. And if you forget to get it then, the FOM receptionist was known on occasion to sprinkle the required amount of pixie dust to magically fix any paperwork problem. The supply of pixie dust was ample, it was kept on the shelf at the back of the miracle room where all the busted spares were stored until their red tags magically turned to green.
However, after a high profile fatal prang when it was revealed one of the pilots didn't have a current medical, and the other had a suspicious medical, the medical standards invigilation was tightened up considerably. After that you actually had to do the medical in the presence of the doctor when he signed the certificate.
And as for the conduct of government business, the PM assured me on at least one occasion he could fix any PNG CAA problems that might arise should it be necessary to apply some operational flexibility to get him where he wanted to go. All it took was a phone call from his people to their people and the problem was fixed. It's just the way it was back then. The PNG way seemed to work well as it relied on the pilot to exercise competent judgement, rather than doing things by the letter of what the rules said should be done. All that started to unravel when some pilots did some dumb things, and the accident investigator actually did some accident investigating. Those days - to some extent - are probably long gone, and rightly so.