work in PNG

[Outbound090]

I'm trying to find out as much as I can about working in PNG. What I need to do to get in. & What companies are there? I have 1500hours, whats the best I could hope for?
Thanks.

[the wizard of auz]

whats the best I could hope for?
Not to die on a cold mountain side.
Ask Ozex, chimbu chuckles, Tinpis or any of those guys that hang out in the PNG thread. I am sure one of them will have a templated answer for the questions you have.
You will need some turbine time to give you both, a chance of a decent job and a far better chance of survival.
I was a high time pilot when I went over there, and I can tell you, It aint for sissys or the weak hearted.
Very challenging flying.

[air med]

go and chat with regional and airlink, they take guys with around your hours, but as the wizard said it is not for the faint hearted, like wizard i had a lot more hours than you have and there were days it was better staying in bed.
But apart from that loved the flying, loved the scuba diving and I thiink all ex PNGers the SP not that bad, miss my house merri
lookim belongyu

[Outbound090]

Thanks heaps guys, I'll follow them up.
I'm sure it will be a challange, but I'm keen to give it a go.

[Capt Fathom]

miss my house merri
And if you notice a haus meri wearing a Seiko watch, it's mine! So don't tell 'em you're leaving!

[Chimbu chuckles]

I arrived in PNG with less than 400 hrs 20 years ago this mth...I left with 9000+ nearly 14 yrs later. It was, and will remain, without doubt the best years of my life...but times have changed so you should listen to guys more current than myself.

The flying won't have changed but the living conditions, pay etc certainly has. As stated above flying and living in PNG is not for the feint hearted...but if you're one that loves really flying an aeroplane as opposed to operating one and you don't scare easily you'll love it.

NOTE!! when I say 'don't scare easily' I don't mean fearless...if you have no fear you will probably end up dead...but if you can listen to that little voice inside you that says "this is very bad...I could end up dead here" and can then fly away, not have nightmares that night and then get up and do it again tomorrow you probably are the type of pilot who could thrive in PNG.

A few guys I knew did fly around PNG in a state of perpetual fear for extended periods. Some became alcoholics, some became morose and some just said I can't do this and came home to Oz. A few guys I know gave themselves such bad frights they just resigned and went home...a lot more didn't survive the bad fright.

You will give yourself bad frights from time to time...I gave myself a few doozies in my first 3 or 4 years.:ugh: :ok:

Perhaps that is the best part about PNG...it strips away all BS, in every area of flying and life in general, and exposes you to yourself...whether you will like what you see is in the lap of the gods...and there is just NO WAY to really know without going up there and living it.

[poteroo]

A young,(35-40 ish), pilot who recently did a BFR with me, had just been up to PNG with a mission outfit to have a look around, and see whether he was going to do his CPL and 'work' with them.

His comments were truly profound:

(1) 'You need bloody X-ray vision to see through clouds', and,

(2) ' never thought Cessnas were that strong!', and,

(3) ' it helps to have truly huge balls!'


happy days,

[Sexual Chocolate]

Airlink - based Madang. +675 852 2933. They were hiring very recently - know a guy who scored an F/O a few weeks back with the same hours + CIR & ATPL. (bandits & C-404)

Hevilift / Regional - based Moresby. +675 323 6761. Think they are still hiring at the moment - know another guy who scored an F/O and started just last week. (kingairs & twotters)

APNG - Moresby. Might have just missed out on this one but probly worth dropping by anyway. +675 325 9330. (twotters)

Tropicair - Moresby. +675 311 2673 (Caravans)

While i've included phone numbers, for all intents and purposes they're kinda irrelevant you won't get a job unless you rock up in person. Maybe just call a week before you arrive to let them know you'll be in town and would like to meet the with the CP. Don't pay too much attention to the whole 'ballz a solid rock' thing - in my personal opinion, 1500 hours onto F/O with any of the above operators is hardly the kind of work that will get your heart rate going. Lucky for you, your first car jacking will more than make up for this: nothing like getting jumped by a bunch of shotgun-toting mo'fo's when all you really wanted was quiet nite out, a steak and a beer may be.....

Luck man

[troppo]

sheesh they got internet at the lae post office now? No more licking stamps aye? :}
You have go and have a look for yourself, you will hear the positives and the negatives from those who were enuf and weren't enuf respectively. It ain't that bad, but it's gotta suit the individual. Rock on up there, at worst you have an interesting holiday, at best you land a gig and spend some of the best times of your life there. Listen and learn from those that know and fly within your limits/experience. Hitch a ride around with the lads and reciprocate with a slab
Nearly 13 years since I first put myself on a Pixie flight out of AKL to POM looking for a job:{ My first OE. I'd never been outside NZ, let alone to Aussie. Got of the flight and fell in love with the place. Been in and out of the country ever since and would probably move back there tomorrow for the right $$$$$
With the number of jobs advertised there lately one must think that no one displays the initiative to go looking for a job in paradise
Chuck said 'some became alcoholics'. I'd suggest that PNG just gave them the time and the place to let the beast out that was trapped inside.
Personally, if went back, I'd want to start at the bottom again flying 206's and BN2's in and out of the 3-400m strips rather than getting in the RHS of a Twotter or Bandit (I mean what do you do?). It's much more fun.
PS leave the silverbelly at home := tell her you love flying more and you will be off to a good start

[air med]

outbound
If you go up to PNG and to Airlink, say hello to Kadiko and Gilmore for me, just say that air med say hello.
if you do get a gig with them and listen to what those 2 guys say, they are the best in there field.
It was a pleasure to be F/O with both of them and then to do my training for command, then having them as my F/O's on flights.
Long days 11 sectors but 3.5 yrs there and 2900hrs later, it taught me so much.
I think my haus merri ate the cat, but could she iron a shirt.
The only reason I left was I was offered a better paid job back in OZ, but I do miss it.
Good luck.
Your attitude seems right for it.

[Chimbu chuckles]

troppo I draw a destinction between those of us who drank lots because it was nighttime (the vast majority) and those who drank because they needed to (a very few).

[Captain Nomad]

Much has already been said. However I will add that flying turbines in and out of the 'bigger' places (you won't see it that way when you first arrive as everything will look like a town or barely a couple of houses) is probably not that bad most of the time. However there are tons of bush strips up here - many of which are shorter than 600m (you will find some around 300m) and they are in all kinds of shapes perched in the private places of many a mountain - THEY are the REAL challenges of PNG and unfortunately there is no where near as much activitiy in and out of those places as what there was in previous times. Combine those types of strips with PNG's weather, VFR ops in a piston (try a fully loaded naturally aspirated 206 in the highlands - you almost wish you were in a twin on one engine 'cos you would probably climb better!). Thank God for turbos and turbines.

My boss spoke to a Scare Niugini captain when they were at the doctors to do medicals recently and the captain commented that he wished he had come up through bush operations then into the airline ops in PNG as he has never seen a map of PNG and really doesn't know much about what is below him most of the time. Apparently the crusty checkie isn't too happy with him when asking "What's that mountain over there" - cap says "I wouldn't have a clue." They follow their SOP's and IFR plans and that totals their understanding of flying ops in PNG!

Good luck - there are opportunities up here for the right people but bear in mind that unless you have been a bush pilot in South America or some other jungle mountain forgotton corner of the world it will be nothing like anything else you have experienced. And yes, there WILL be days where you'll wish you hadn't gotton out of bed...;)

[Chimbu chuckles]

However I will add that flying turbines in and out of the 'bigger' places (you won't see it that way when you first arrive as everything will look like a town or barely a couple of houses) is probably not that bad most of the time.

My underlining.

Well...yes...but GKA, as just one example, is surrounded with the Turbine wrecks of three mates of mine..all of whom, and their passengers/cabin crew, died.

I keep hearing that the real bush flying in PNG is hardly done anymore...all those villagers and their cash crops isolated?

In my time bush flying in PNG I flew into 318 different bush strips...the real bush...what happens now?

[Outbound090]

Wow, heaps of good and interesting info here guys, thanks again. Unfortunately I don't have any turbine time as yet.
Is it just an air law exam to convert the licence from Aus to PNG?

[tinpis]

Gee Chuck...an alcoholic was NOTICED in your days up there??? .:uhoh: :hmm:

[air med]

air law and ifr exam, when I was there it only cost 100 kina for a pass in both but I think the guy's name was harold, well he got caught.
Not hard to sit.
As for the turbines, dont need that with airlink as they still run with c404 and i think a few bongo's.

[air med]

Hey donne.
My haus merri was fantastic, didnt have to worry about leaving kina around, but my wife and i alsways made sure that xmas time she got plerty of Kai kai to take home.She was with us for nearly 2 yrs, then when Ileft the guy that took the house he had as haus merri as well, But she did try and clean the ceiling fan while still spinning, I cracked up at that one.
Anyway merri xmas guys all be safe

[Captain Nomad]

Chimbu,

A agree with your underlining - I wasn't trying to suggest that flying a turbine around PNG is easy - the extra performance maybe sometimes making it just a bit easier :E (to get INTO trouble as well as out...) :uhoh:

Full sympathies to your mates on the hills around Goroka - it is not hard to envisioin ways that could happen...

It is just that now the vast majority of commercial work outside of airlines (which now only go to the main centres - unlike Talair) is PRIMARILY work for logging companies or mines. The bush really is suffering and yes - in many cases they have just been deserted. Admittedly some more roads have been developed in some places but then there are plenty that have gone 'baggerup' and are impassable to vehicles too! :{

MAF is now the biggest server of the bush strips and they are absolutely sick to the teeth of being mobbed at strips by people desperate to go places. They along with anyone else trying to make a buck out of the bush also find it hard to make it profitable with hugely increased operating costs - don't even start on the fuel availability and the rediculous prices... Coffee prices haven't gone up enough to offset all those increases which cuts directly into profitability! Combine that with staffing difficulties (hard to get experienced people to fly and engineer in the PNG bush...) and government malpractice and neglect of anything important.

When you get some tribe threatening pilots and not looking after their airstrip (forget government help in that area) and people trying and expecting to go places without paying the proper airfare... There are strips now where everyone has said 'stuff it' - we just can't go there anymore and it is not worth the risk to our aircraft and pilots! And basically I think that is probably the bones of it now - the bush is just plain 'TOO HARD!' in so many ways.
Why has Airlines PNG pulled aircraft out of PNG for their Australian ops? Easy really - much easier to make money elsewhere!

Rambling rant over!