PNG pilot
 

I guess many of the old PNG pilots have stories to tell....like the time I was landing at Kiunga in a c150 from the left seat when the control column split pin came out, and so did the control column...landed it from the left seat with the right hand control...case of need a beer quick!!Also flying Stol C336 and had a complete electrical failure....Daru was just being built as a staging strip, and had to land there no flaps, no pitch control....in fact bugger all except good luck, because at that stage Daru was a short dirt strip.Many more similar stories...like to hear someone elses though.

I used to fly a Citation up there in the early 90's, though not for long.

http://www.billzilla.org/guasopa.jpg

The jet at Guasopa.


http://www.billzilla.org/rabaulvolcano.jpg

Going into Toukua (That right?), near Rabaul when the volcano was erputing.


http://www.billzilla.org/dash-oops.jpg

Um .... don't ask!

For interest many lies told here http://www.pprune.org/dg-p-general-a...g-tok-tok.html

Many years ago I read an autobiography written by a lady missionary pilot, big Cessna single I seem to recall, and her adventures plying around PNG, Madang and Goroka in particular. I would like to read it again but have forgotten the title and author. Anybody hazard a guess for me please?

Autobiography written by a lady pilot
 

STEENSON, Eileen.
FLIGHT PLAN PNG.
Rigby. Adelaide. 1974.

...is the one you are after I think...she flew C185s...remember meeting her in the early 70s up there.

Thank you sooo much, yes that's the one! Looks like it could be tricky to re-locate.....

Reading that book reinforced my affinity for the larger Cessna singles and such challenging flying. Struggled to get my hands on 180/5, had to make do with 206 and 182. Wonderful, robust, 'agricultural' dirt-strip machines. I look forward to settling down with Eileen's adventures again....!

Thanks again!

Pretty easy if you know where to look .... ;)

Eileen STEENSON - AbeBooks

US$21.00, not too bad.

Yes...should have mentioned Abe Books - excellent source.

It is about the only book written about flying in 'more recent times' :) in PNG...

The Balus trilogy is excellent, though as you say is about older times.
(And my Dad's in it!)

Eileen Steenson

Yes, it was Eileen who wrote the book Flight Plan PNG.
She was my flying instructor back in 1974 at Albury NSW.
Iam trying to track her down and I hope she is still around.
Eileen was single at the time, but married later in life to a fellow called Reynolds,(or similar) who has since passed away. I have heard that Eileen had later moved to QLD. I suspect that she would be quite elderly if still around. I thought she was elderly at the time of teaching me, but then I was 19 and anyone over 30 was past it then.
Does anyone know of her wherabouts?

Hi PNG Pil,

From your age and your comments I think we may have been flying together for STOL around 1962 - 1963. If so drop me an email. Cheers Exaviator :ok:

I suggest contact the Australian Womens' Pilot Association and its a good bet they will have her details if she is still a member.
I am almost certain she was recently interviewed by a local newspaper.

Eileen Steenson
 

She is now 94 and lives in an Aged Care Home in Caloundra. She was recently at the Caloundra Open Cockpit display. Contact me [email protected] for more details.

Skydoc. Jim Sinclair, author of the "Balus" trilogy, "Sepik Pilot" and many other books on PNG, lives quite close to you. He is 83 and still writing PNG books.

Flight Plan PNG, what a fantastic book and a great insight into the life of a commercial pilot flogging around the last frontier, in single-engine Cessna's.

Our newly opened school library somehow acquired a copy, and and as a kid I could sniff out an aviation book at fifty paces. I would have read it at least half a dozen times and always managed to borrow it for the school holidays.

I recently saw a copy for sale at well known bookshop in the Melbourne CBD, that specialises in second hand books. It cetainly bought back fond memories as I last read the book in 1977.

If she is 94 now, she would been up there flying in the late 1960's, which would make in her late 40's which again is a remarkable feat for a woman in those times. Did she fly commercially in Australia before going to PNG?

Vae Eileen Steenson
 

Vale Eileen Steenson/ Ronalds
Sadly Eileen passed away 21 August 2010 at the age of 95. Her funeral was 30 August At Church of Christ at Dicky Beach Caloundra Qld.
An article has been written about her in the next issue of AIRNEWS, journal of Aust Women Pilots' Association

Vale Eileen Steenson
 

Vale Eileen Steenson/ Ronalds
Sadly Eileen passed away 21 August 2010 at the age of 95. Her funeral was 30 August At Church of Christ at Dicky Beach Caloundra Qld.
An article has been written about her in the next issue of AIRNEWS, journal of Aust Women Pilots' Association