When in PNG....

[2p!ssed2drive]

Hi friends

Am joining the ranks of PNG aviators.

does anyone have anything to add to the following, to help a mate out? this was given to me by an aid worker over there :ok: Cheers

Well the good news for you is that you are a guy, this means that things will be easier rule wise for you. anyway so small tips would be the following: PNGers do not show very much physical affection between males and females so distance yourself from the PNG women, this means no hand holding, no hugs, nothing of that sort, not even a hand on the shoulder or back. This is all because it will make the woman look bad to her people and also to protect you because in their culture doing any of these things can be seen as a commitment of marriage. Another thing is to not look people in the eyes over there, women take it as a come on from men and vice versa, but if a man looks in another mans ees it can also be seen as a challenge. Also never (well try your hardest not to) walk behind a woman, always walk infront of them, it is just a cultural faux pas. Also the men will be very physical with you. They see nothing wrong with holding hands with other men, it is a friendship thing. They Love hugging as well. Aslo never call a PNG girl your 'friend' it is a sexual term to them.
The country will smell terrible in the more country parts, it is a smell you will have to get used to. some common sence stuff would be to not carry large portions of money, keep your wallet in your front jeans pocket, do travel alone (it is safer for men to do this but some people will try to steal your money, especially in MT. Hagen.). But beyond all the scar stuff PGN is a wonderful country, the people will love to talk to you and look at you because you are white skinned and they will gather around you, dont be frightened (if you smile alot at them then you should be more than fine.)

Anyway I hope this helps some.
~MXXX

[Torres]

90% cr@p!!

Three words of advice: Be ever cautious. :=

From one who spent over 20 years in PNG.

[troppo]

Everything will look and smell better after a few SP's even the Chimbu meris :}

[Sharpie]

.......and log onto postcourier.com.pg and thenational.com.pg as well as read as much as you can about the country. learn a bit of melanesian pidgin, you can forget Motu initially.

....and get a good set of aeronautcal charts of the country. learn the topography, geography, landmarks and relative time and distances between place to place. GPS is great but do not rely 100% on such. Electronics are known to fail and local knowledge will be a big help. Always have an funk-hole escape route. Do not poke your nose in unless you can do a 180 turn and 'get out'!

....and keep out of cloud below the lasalt unless on an instrument approach. There are some big hills up there and well over 100 civil aircraft wrecks in some of them. Do not become a statistic.

Enjoy yourself, enjoy the challenge of PNG flying, a fantastic place and the best of british luck my lad. I survived 37 years in TPNG + PNG. Go for it.

[Sexual Chocolate]

Yeah 90% crap, I would disregard everything said especially the take on white boy / black girl interaction. In respect of further advice, who are you working for? Are you someone who's responded to the recent jobs going with North Coast? A missionary? Airlines PNG? General advice may be good, but targeted advice is even better.....

[Jabawocky]

Sharpie, first time I have seen anyone else refer to TPNG.

I love filling in forms requiring country you were born in, and having the receipient look sideways at you:suspect:. Being an Australian citizen from birth but TPNG being where I was when my expat parents were when I was manufactured makes it a bit hard for some to follow.

Ok Thread drift OFF.

[tinpis]

Take a piece of black velvet cloth up with you

If it appears to turn white go pinis kwiktaim :hmm:

[MixmasterBilongJesus]

Wow, this guy is considering pilai wantaim meri and he is not even in the country yet! Bravo! :ok:

I swore I would never go there, but after my 1st 3 or 4 home brews (they didn't have SP back then) it was a different story. :O

[Sharpie]

.....just remember that irrespective on how long you live in the country, you are still a guest.:)

[Torres]

MixmasterBilongJesus. Yu gat save long taim bipo SP? Yu bludy lapun tru!!!

I still have my "Permit to Enter" TPNG from the very early 60's and would be one of the very few who have voted in a PNG Haus Ass Election.

[2p!ssed2drive]

Thanks guys :)

Sounds all very good.

I don't claim to be the worlds 'best pilot'.... Nor do I claim to be any better than my peers... But I do show a good regard towards follwing the rules and knowing the boundaries. I have an aptitude for 'keeping it simple stupid', and always allow room for common sense to play it's part.

Apart from that... the only other advice I've been given is.... "Keep your d!cK in your pants" :ok:

If there's any other advice you can give on what it means to be a competent Papua New Guinean pilot... please.... be my guest.

[Torres]

My advice:

1. If you land at Chimbu watch out for the toothless old crone that welcomes all new pilots to the province with a "Chimbu Handshake"!

2. Watch, listen and learn. PNG is a vastly more hostile operational environment than Australia.

3. Stick to your ANO 28 approved air routes.

4. Don't push the personal envelope.

It is the land of the unexpected. Enjoy.

[solowflyer]

Have not been to PNG but have spent a bit of time in the Solomon Islands next door. The guys hand holding and touching thing is very hard to get used to. I thought I had just arived at Martigar when i got off the plane, makes you want to sit down alot mainly at the bar:}

[SmokingHole]

Don't forget to take your bush knife if you want to blend in. Also handy for opening a crisp SP Brown. Pack a bag of lime also - handy for chewing betel nut - aka boui (sp?):E

Take an old pair of sandshoes also - very popular tied together and thrown over powerlines

[Muzza]

Didn't know what you did was called surviving Sharpie .

Take Care

[markben]

English expat hacked to death in PNG
Wednesday Aug 22 17:06 AEST
An Englishman and long-term resident of Papua New Guinea has been hacked to death on the back veranda of his home in the capital Port Moresby.

Police are investigating whether robbery was behind the killing of Guy Andrew Mascord, 50, whose body found by security guards early on Sunday in the suburb of Boroko.

He had a neck wound caused by an axe or bush knife and stab wounds to his abdomen.

Mascord worked for a real estate firm but had spent 27 years with PNG's Education Department after arriving as a voluntary service teacher in 1979.

Friend Russell Jackson said Mascord's friends and colleagues were in shock over his death.

"He was very PNG in style, he went about barefoot and got on very well with people."

Jackson said Mascord had been robbed several times before but never hurt.

"There was something different this time."

Neighbours heard scuffles and a bang on Mascord's veranda around 3am on Sunday before he was found by security guards, Jackson said.

He might have been killed because he got in the way of a robbery, he said.

The guards reported "raskol" crime gang members had broken into the residential compound.

Mascord, originally from Stratford-on-Avon, was principal curriculum officer with the Education Department and involved in significant education reforms within PNG.

He later worked at the giant Porgera gold mine in PNG's Highlands as an environmental impact consultant.

Mascord leaves behind his wife Lydia, two sons and a daughter.

His funeral will be held in Port Moresby on Thursday.

Port Moresby police chief Alfred Reu said the homicide squad was investigating but so far had no leads.


Good to know the betel nut chewin HOMICIDE SQUAD is on to it!!!!! :ok:

[the wizard of auz]

Good to know the betel nut chewin HOMICIDE SQUAD is on to it!!!!!
they probably sitting around at 5 mile sharing the spoils. :uhoh:

[Captain Nomad]

Keep a healthy degree of fear - those who don't are the ones who are likely to have a shorter lifespan!

Learn as much as you can and develop your local knowledge whenever and wherever you can - it can make the difference between safely getting the job done or not - and might also get you out of a pickle one day - or many days...

The flying is awesome and some days you'll love it - other days you'll wish you hadn't got out of bed.

Don't always expect things to happen the way they should (eg. just because there is a Jet A tanker cart at Kiunga and although you have phoned in advance doesn't mean it has fuel in it and the tractor might be broken too). Be a thinking pilot and think for other people (like ATC) as well as yourself!

Don't underestimate the weather - it usually takes most new pilots quite some time to get used to it and its changeability - it's normal! Always respect it and don't ever expect it to be the same from one mile to the next or one hour to the next and certainly not one day to the next.

Enjoy the experience and remember there is a lot more to PNG than old Moresby. Mostly the bad stories get out but you'll see that it is not ALL bad and there are plenty of nice people as well as the ones who see walking dollar signs when they see you...

Lastly, the aviation community up here is even smaller than Australia so if you want to be the pidgeon - remember that you will also be the statue - perhaps sooner than down south. In other words - be careful if you want to start burning bridges!

[Tmbstory]

Sharpie,

Very well said and true in all respects.

[greenslopes]

Don't do anything stupid quickly!
Have a think before plunging in, this applies to everything in P.N.G and life in general.
Take all advice but make your own mind up, the final decision is yours, and yours alone.
Good luck
Lookim

[markben]

Last I saw there were more guns in Lae than people, both home made and state of the Art, Tari had loads of high powered weapons, and not scared to show them, and sleepy Madang also saw some pilots come close to the wrong end of a shot gun. Oh, is that Notam for Mt Hagen still valid stating "low flying aircraft could be shot at"?
Enjoy you'll have a GREAT time!
Lukim tru wanpela :E

[Ricky Bobby]

Keep your guard up. Young fellas who come over usually sleep with one eye open the first few nights, then a false sense of security sets in and next thing you know they've joined the Lamana Gold Club.

You may think it's a small risk and it's OK to run the gauntlet every now and then with the raskols AND police but I don't. Follow your instincts and remember prevention is better than cure - AVOID situations which could potentially turn nasty for you.

[tail wheel]

Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make all of them yourself.

Never let an aircraft take you somewhere your brain didn't get to five minutes earlier.

[Lineboy4life]

Fook me, I start my tour of duty up those ways at the end of the month too...:uhoh:

What with the possibility of Malaria, gettin Jakked or making a bad D and smudging yourself on a hillside somewhere youd have to be keen:eek:

won't someone post something + so me and 2pissed can rest easy (ish) :{

[kiwiblue]

won't someone post something + so me and 2pissed can rest easy (ish) :{

Sure bro: Don't take life so seriously -you'll never survive it!

Enjoy! :ok:

[Metro man]

Why not find somewhere safer to work, such as Iraq or Somalia ? Pay there will be far greater with better living conditions.

PS Local girls love the white boys. If you go into a night club expect a stream of them trying to pick you up.:E

[Captain Nomad]

You don't have to go to a nightclub for that to happen! Have had them singing out to me from the lush beer garden outside the dero while I'm walkin' around me aeroplane...! :}

[tinpis]

Iron will is all it takes
Take a copy of the Holy Bible and hold it before you and and sayeth loudly when leaving the Dero

"AWAY JEZABELL TAKE YOUR ROTTEN FLESH FROM HERE"

Start at about 4 kina mate :ok:

[212bushman]

Remember "Stella" & her crew looking after you. :}

[High 6]

A lot of good advice and precautions on these pages, all worth taking heed of. My two toea worth....enjoy the flying experience and live the moments. :)
Many of us who flew there and have moved on to shinier, faster, electronic wonder machines look back on our days as a PNG Bush Pilot as some of the best times of our careers.
One definite item to take with you is a good digital camera, the investment will be well worth it. Take lots of pictures, there will be many opportunites to do so.
You can squeeze it in your nav bag between the Magnum and the bottle of bundy!

[TAU MATAMATA]

Watching those African movies the Gods must be crazy 1/2 may give you an overview and at least good laugh.

Also,be prepared to to sit on the ground for some weeks pending your licence issue.PNG CAA are not user friendly and currently:ok: not issuing validations on contract states licences,which in the past would have had you operating within a few days.

[OOC]

When in PNG.........enjoy the flying, enjoy the SP, enjoy the Gold Club and enjoy the merri's and cause they r goin enjoy you at some time and point, from a betting man.

One word of advice, the company car. Don't go to anyone of the many seedy clubs at 3am in the morning by yourself and suddendly find a bunch of highlanders who are now suddenly your best mates. This may seem common sense to most.........but one chap was oblivious and wound up in the morning at Ella beach with his pants around his ankles :eek:.

Mean while the crazy highlanders are driving around the streets of Morseby whilst all the company pilots are out on a SAR (streets of Morseby) looking for there car and pilot who has gone awol. Some mothers do have em..........

Ah PNG the land of the unexpected.......rarely a dull moment on the ground or in the air!

[Torres]

Reminds me of a day in 1984 when I had two company cars stolen in 24 hours in Port Morbid, one being GHOCs pride and joy! :}

[OzExpat]

won't someone post something + so me and 2pissed can rest easy (ish) :{
Lineboy4life... The very best advice that I've ever heard was many years ago issued by a particularly well-known old "Jasper". He said... "Tomorrow is another day". :ok:

[noexcessivecranking]

Olaman! Ol yangpela man i laik bosim balus long ples bilong yumi, tasol planti bai kungrutim balus long mountain ya! Sapos yu tingim olsem cloud i no inap long kilim yu, lukout tasol long ol graun insait long cloud, i gat planti long hap. Yu mas lukautim gut ol samtin bilong yu long haus, ol raskol bai paitim yu na stilim quick, tru ya! Ol Two-Kina meri tu yu mas abrusim ol stret, noken tingim olsem ol i gat gutpela samtin, yu bai kamap bel sori nogut tru, harim! Kok bilong yu bai sori, na yu tu bai sori. Noken spak wantaim ol bossbalus bilong Russia, yu bai slip i stap long de na ol bai wok tasol.

Well, if you work that out, you've probably been there long enough to experience it all! :ok:

[Animalclub]

Reminds me of a day in 1984 when I had two company cars stolen in 24 hours in Port Morbid, one being GHOCs pride and joy!

Reminds me of the time when the Chief Pilot of the national airline took his car to PX garage at Jacksons and asked the local guy he saw standing outside the garage to "Drive me back to the office and you can have the car"

PX security found the guy with his wife doing the shopping in Boroko a few hours later. You see, the local guy didn't work for PX - but he did as he was told!!

[Ricky Bobby]

2 boys got a clobbering the other week at a very well known night time establishment, it wasn't you was it? young fellas getting a little carried away with being expats with money and thinking they can do what they want when in a third world country. This is not Melbourne or Sydney, women can be regarded as property here so you have to be careful which one you show overt attention to.

Hope they are now OK and have learnt a valuable lesson. Be careful boys!!

[tinpis]

Reminds me of someone who was attacked 35 years ago in the Aviat carpark
(Yes Port Morbid was dangerous even then)
He fought off his attackers,one armed with a rock the other with a screwdriver
As they fled he grabbed and ripped out a fistful of underpants.
The shreddies were given to the local cop shop with instructions to find the man they belonged to.

[Chimbu chuckles]

won't someone post something + so me and 2pissed can rest easy (ish) :{

Coming up for 22 years ago I sat in the old Dero Club with Jasper Maskelyne on my 6th night in PNG...the next day I was boarding a Talair flight to Chimbu to actually begin the grand adventure and I'd just spent 6 days in Port Morbid studying for/passing the air leg exam and being issue with my licence...and 5 nights being filled full of SP Beer and horror stories in the Deroclub..."You'll be dead in 1/2/3 mths"..."I remember so and so, he crashed at such and such and was killed because..." etc etc.

"Jasper can you tell me something to hang my hat on that will keep me alive long enough to learn a few things?"

With that look and smile Jasper is famous for "We have been all week, Chuck"

He'd been flying in PNG for 30 odd years THEN...starting in Norsemans casually for Gibbes Sepik and flying 'freezer' to Chimbu in a Tiger Moth while working as an ATC in the Tower at Goroka before joining Ansett MAL as a FO on the DC3.

Wonderfull, wonderfull times...13.5 years I wish I could relive...well 99% of it:ok:

[Chimbu chuckles]

Best piece of advice in the thread...'Never do anything stupid, quickly':}

Now if someone had told me THAT early on it might have saved me from a fright or three:E

On a more serious not...the next day while sitting in the Talair terminal awaiting my ride to Chimbu, a 402A flown by 'Rash', I experienced seriously severe 'butterflies in the stomache'. I really was scared about what the future held. Over and over in my mind I said..."You can't do this...get on the burner and go home".

An hour or two later descending into the valleys around Chimbu sat in the RHS of the Talair 402 I gazed out and became absolutely bezotted with what I saw...just STUNNING countryside, much of it above us.....EVERY doubt vanished from my mind...I HAD to stay here and do this...but it was at least two more years before I stopped getting butterflies before going to work each day.

[pakeha-boy]

:ok:CC...Ive come across many who talk of flying in PNG........my advice to them is to log onto pprune and talk to you....I feel its in their best interests,....and it may save their lives:ok:

[Chimbu chuckles]

Billy Johns, Jasper and Frank Newell...true legends of PNG aviation...Billy Johns started flying up there in the mid 50s in Dehavilland Dragons:uhoh:. Jasper a few years later as aforementioned...and yes that is the look he gave me...both retired from Air Niugini after full careers and then kept flying up there...Jasper was still flying Dash 8s for Talair when I was a Talair Twotter pilot several years after his advice to a frightened 350hr neophyte. I think by the time Billy Johns stopped flying Flight West's B200s he had 30000 hrs.

http://www.angreunion.co.nr/

Edit...can't link directly to the piccy...but follow the links to PX people photos and it's about the second or third one.

[Cat,Duck&Stopwatch]

Pack a digi camera and a file and make the most of the experiences.

[2p!ssed2drive]

re the 2 expats that were attacked, i have it on good account that they were hit by someone who DOES NOT have a tan (like most PNG nationals)...

So you never know...

[Pinky the pilot]

but it was at least two more years before I stopped getting butterflies before going to work each day.

Being a relatively short timer there Chuck I never stopped getting the flamin' things! :eek:

Possibly the only thing that stopped me 'buying the farm' completely!

[OzExpat]

It's not called "the land of the unexpected" for nothing. After all the years I've been there, things STILL happen that I never expected... :eek:

[Radix]

............

[zimex]

There is some excellent advice regarding flying in PNG from guys that have been there, Torres, Sharpie etc
I joined Talair in '84, Wally Pendray (CP) gave me this advice on living and operatiing PNG. "This isn't our country, we are only visitors here, be curtious to the people, but be careful, don't get to close!"
I enjoyed the PNG ex-pat lifestyle and interaction with the locals particularly on the out-stations, though i always applied Wal's advice in my every day dealing with the locals etc.it seemed to work, never had a problem with the locals.
Wal's advice on operating in the country, "Try to complete the job, but be weary, minimise your risks, Keep the back door open and always have an escape plan!"
I took this advice on board and pretty much applied this to my day to day operations over several years operating in PNG.
With the terrain, geographical location and Weather etc, PNG operations will always be challenging so just be weary. I have heard PNG operations described as 99 percent boredom and 1 percent sheer terror, not to far off the mark!!!
Having spent too much time flying in several other operations in the not so pleasant areas of the world ( Somalia / Djibouti/ Ethiopia / Angola and others), i still rate PNG as one of the most impressive countries that i have ever seen and certainly the best place that i have ever operated.

[Torres]

G'Day Zimex. Good to see another of the Talair mob on PPRuNe! :ok: How is Wally, I guess you see him occasionally?

2p!ssed2drive. How about this mission strip south west of Goroka?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/Woomera/NiceRunway.jpg

[zimex]

Hi Torres, thank you.
I have mainly been watching the PPrune PNG treads with interest for some time. Thought that i would add my two toia's worth to this thread, it may be of some use to newby's who are thinking of heading to the great land of the "unexpected".
Regarding Wally, I haven't seen him for a couple of years, though occasionally hear him on the radio, he is flying for QANTAS Jet Connect, based in Wellington these days.
Thinking of ex Talair identities, i spoke to Don Sinclair this morning!

[tinpis]

Tinpis sends regards to Don :ok:
Talair CP when I was there in '75

[Chimbu chuckles]

While I suspect you're right it is actually a real shame...those type of strips were where the action was...more fun than should be legal...but from what I hear, more and more, most of those strips are closed and that type of flying is a mere fraction of what it was even 5 years ago.

To go to PNG and never leave the bitumen main ports is just a bizarre concept for those of us who enjoyed the last of the 'good ol' days' of the 80s/ early 90s.

[2p!ssed2drive]

500m em tasol....

[tinpis]

....and the weather is not as rotten as it used to be so I hear ..Bah ! ...1500 feet in the old money was yer grass strip and greasy as well :hmm:

[Animalclub]

Have they fixed that strip with a bend in it? Aitape. Landed there in a Douglas Trilander... once!

[Killer Loop]

No, Aitape still closed as the dept thinks that there are too many chickens, dogs, people etc wandering around on the thing. Using Tadji instead.

[QFF]

2p!ssed2drive. How about this mission strip south west of Goroka?

Looks familiar... ?West Papua (the Indonesian side, whatever they call it these days), perhaps?

[Torres]

An MAF C206. Not my photo but looks like a mission strip I've seen from the air south west of Goroka. Maybe West Irian - not sure.

No interest in going there to find out!! :}

[Captain Nomad]

I think I've been to just about every strip SW of Goroka and I'm still puzzling over where this pic fits in... Mind you, some of the ones SW of Goroka are just as good :ok:

[OzExpat]

I have an idea that the photo posted by our good mate Torres was discussed at length in here a year or 2 back. If memory serves me correctly (a dubious prospect that the best of times! :O ), the general consensus was that the strip was likely to be somewhere in the Papua province of Indonesia - the place that has been called West Papua, Irian Jaya... yada yada. Booze tends to interfere with memory, so I'm told, so I could be wrong. :}

[troppo]

oz you're right. that strip also appears on a MAF website and newsletter for Irian Jaya