27th Jan 2019, 13:21 - Wikipost
|
|||
|
|||
|
A thread where ex PNG geriatrics lapuns and long longs can live in the dim distant past.
Where tall stories are accepted as fact. War stories are applauded. Grab a Brownie, pull up a story and join in a trip down memory lane!!! 
|
PNG Ples Bilong Tok Tok
Moderator
What is the smallest aircraft operating between POM and Tabubil?
Think the Dash 8 goes into Kiunga, not sure about Tabubil but I would not think so. I'll check.I'm hearing rumours from a number of reliable sources. Pixie. Harbin Y-12s? Wonder who gets the commission? You heard it first on PPRuNe.
If Air Niugini get the Y-12, it will make the Dash 7 deal seem squeaky clean.
Only the Chinese could take a Twin Otter, and in the process of trying to clone it, c0ck it up completely.
Although I have not flown one, I have (regrettably) travelled in the Y-12 a bit, and it is totally impractical. Features such as
Maybe Air Vanuatu would gladly part with theirs.
Only the Chinese could take a Twin Otter, and in the process of trying to clone it, c0ck it up completely.
Although I have not flown one, I have (regrettably) travelled in the Y-12 a bit, and it is totally impractical. Features such as
- overwing refuelling only (with an exceptionally long ladder required) and no possibility of refuelling from drums in the bush
- all baggage must be loaded through the main cabin door, preventing simultaneous loading of passengers and baggage
- fixed passenger seat positions (as opposed to variable on Douglas track) which results in generous leg room in the forward rows, and virtually none in the last couple of rows (presumably to correct a C of G issue)
- no airstair, necessitating portable stairs at all ports
Maybe Air Vanuatu would gladly part with theirs.
Moderator
I don't know whether the rumour involves the present model Y-12's or the new, yet to fly Y-12F? The Y-12F appears to be a significant improvements but I still doubt it is anywhere in the same league as the Series 400 Twin Otter. I'm sure someone will benefit.......
I also heard the rumour about PX and the Harbins, I don't know if there is any substance though, I would have thought the Vicking Twin Otters would have been a better option, even with the long waiting time to delivery.
Really though is this what PX want ? I can see their non fatal track record going right out the window with these kind of machines. No problem with the aircraft, it will be the pilots, ie experience levels, the junior pilots will be driving these things in the bush and not the high timers.
Really though is this what PX want ? I can see their non fatal track record going right out the window with these kind of machines. No problem with the aircraft, it will be the pilots, ie experience levels, the junior pilots will be driving these things in the bush and not the high timers.
Yes Chuck, Fogs is now an airline executive!
It has naught to do with aircraft suitability, or delivery timelines, and everything to do with "incentives".
I would have thought the Vicking Twin Otters would have been a better option, even with the long waiting time to delivery.
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: South Pacific
Posts: 862
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
the CEO's office
Fogs is now an airline executive!
Shame tho'.. He made a good pilot.. - saw how his lightning reflexes saved the day in training circumstances once, after the student forgot..-
Don't end up like Sumsum..
Harbin Y12's a Twin Otter Copy - hardly.
When Jim Cairns went to China at the behest of Mr Whitlam he took with him the plans for the Nomad. If you google Harbin aircraft you will come up with a early Y12 type with radial engines - look at the tail it is a replica of the N22 & N24.
I gues we can sometimes "sell" to china - be it a total disaster. Now they are exporting them - a bit like buying a Cherry Car.
When Jim Cairns went to China at the behest of Mr Whitlam he took with him the plans for the Nomad. If you google Harbin aircraft you will come up with a early Y12 type with radial engines - look at the tail it is a replica of the N22 & N24.
I gues we can sometimes "sell" to china - be it a total disaster. Now they are exporting them - a bit like buying a Cherry Car.
Also,
AVIATION: Bulolo reopens for business
Air Niugini resumes service
Malum Nalu
Many people who have been long fascinated by the story of the gold rush days of the 1930s in Papua New Guinea feel that history is being rewritten with the resumption of Air Niugini flights to Bulolo on May 16.
The resumption of services was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd including traditional dancers from Watut province.
In his address, Air Niugini’s Chief Executive Officer, Wasantha Kumarasiri said due to the current activities in Bulolo, it was the airline’s community service obligation to provide air services to the local and business communities in Bulolo.
Apart from mining activities, there are also other operations and projects that warrant further air transportation.
The new service will provide the people and those residing in the Wau/Bulolo area direct flights to Port Moresby, instead of travelling by road to Nadzab to catch their flight.
The airport was closed in the 1990s due to lack of economic activities, forcing the airline companies to withdraw vital air services to the area and left people to rely heavily on the roading network for the delivery of goods and services to Wau and Bulolo.
The new-look Bulolo Airport apron and the 1,500 metres runway was officially opened in February 2009.
The upgrading work was jointly funded by Harmony Gold, PNG Forest Products and NKW Holdings at a cost of K500,000.
The world greatest airlift
The greatest airlift the world had ever known started from Lae to the Bulolo goldfields in the 1930s. Built in June 1930, the original the Bulolo strip was 1,150 yards by 120 yards. Later it was expanded to 1,300 yards in length, covered with grass.
This airstrip was used in conjunction with flying supplies and equipment for gold dredging at Wau and Bulolo.
On January 21, 1942, Japanese Zeros and bombers attacked Bulolo.
At Bulolo, they set fire to three of the Junkers G31 tri-motors, destroying them totally.
Gold dredging work ceased as most of the men employed entered military service.
Five days later, on February 5, 1942, Bulolo was bombed at 11am by five twin-engine bombers.
The discovery of gold at Edie Creek above Wau in 1926 sparked a gold rush which led to the exploitation of the rich deposits of the Bulolo-Watut river system by large-scale mechanised mining.
The rigours and cost of the eight-day walk into the goldfields and the difficulties of building a road from the coast led to the early introduction of an aviation service.
The driving force behind the development of the goldfields was Cecil J. Levien, a former Morobe District Officer, who was described as a “rare and formidable combination of opportunist, practical man and visionary”.
Levien persuaded the directors of Guinea Gold N.L. that startling profits would be made by any aviation company that could provide a service to eliminate the arduous walk between Salamaua and Wau.
He secured an option on a small DH-37 plane in Melbourne and engaged a pilot, E. A. ‘Pard’ Mustar, to bring it to New Guinea. The aviation service was a success from the start.
After two unsuccessful flights around the mountains south of the Markham, no one knew exactly how to find Wau from the air.
Mustar landed at Wau for the first time on April 16, 1937. He began the service the next day with a shipment of six 100lbs bags of rice, charging a shilling a pound, and, making two trips a day, five days a week, carrying 84 passengers and 27, 000lbs of cargo in the first three months.
Rival aviation companies were not long in arriving to share the profits.
Ray Parer, the proprietor of Bulolo Goldfields Air Service, who had been competing keenly with Mustar to be the first to land at Lae, came from Rabaul after many delays, and A. ‘Jerry’ Pentland and P. ‘Skip’ Moody soon joined them.
There was ample business for all and by April 1928, a year after the service began, Guinea Airways (the aviation company that grew from Guinea Gold N.L.) had acquired two extra planes and employed three more pilots and two more mechanics.
In March 1929 a new company, Morlae Airlines, began a weekly Lae-Port Moresby service, meeting ships from Australia and bringing passengers and frozen foods across to Wau, Bulolo, Salamaua and Lae.
Skyways cheapest highways
At first, Bulolo Gold Dredging Ltd and its parent company, Placer Development Ltd, had thought of building a road to the goldfields, but the length of time it would take and the high cost of construction and maintenance persuaded the companies to accept Guinea Airways’ proposition that “skyways are the cheapest highways”.
On the advice of Mustar, Bulolo Gold Dredging purchased three all-metal, tri-motored Junkers G-31 aircraft from Germany, which Guinea Airways was to operate under licence for the gold mining company.
Guinea Airways also purchased a Junkers G-31 of its own. They were huge planes, each capable of carrying a payload of 7100lbs or 14 short tons together.
The airlift began in April 1931 and continued for eight years: the first dredge began work in March 1932, the eighth in November, 1939.
Another crane at the airstrip lifted the heavy machinery into the planes and a rail crane unloaded them at Bulolo.
Eventually operations became so efficient that nine round trips a day were possible.
The airlift was a remarkable undertaking. It pioneered the use of aviation in the transport of heavy cargo and, in the words of one writer, “in every respect, it constituted a world record”.
AVIATION: Bulolo reopens for business
Air Niugini resumes service
Malum Nalu
Many people who have been long fascinated by the story of the gold rush days of the 1930s in Papua New Guinea feel that history is being rewritten with the resumption of Air Niugini flights to Bulolo on May 16.
The resumption of services was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd including traditional dancers from Watut province.
In his address, Air Niugini’s Chief Executive Officer, Wasantha Kumarasiri said due to the current activities in Bulolo, it was the airline’s community service obligation to provide air services to the local and business communities in Bulolo.
Apart from mining activities, there are also other operations and projects that warrant further air transportation.
The new service will provide the people and those residing in the Wau/Bulolo area direct flights to Port Moresby, instead of travelling by road to Nadzab to catch their flight.
The airport was closed in the 1990s due to lack of economic activities, forcing the airline companies to withdraw vital air services to the area and left people to rely heavily on the roading network for the delivery of goods and services to Wau and Bulolo.
The new-look Bulolo Airport apron and the 1,500 metres runway was officially opened in February 2009.
The upgrading work was jointly funded by Harmony Gold, PNG Forest Products and NKW Holdings at a cost of K500,000.
The world greatest airlift
The greatest airlift the world had ever known started from Lae to the Bulolo goldfields in the 1930s. Built in June 1930, the original the Bulolo strip was 1,150 yards by 120 yards. Later it was expanded to 1,300 yards in length, covered with grass.
This airstrip was used in conjunction with flying supplies and equipment for gold dredging at Wau and Bulolo.
On January 21, 1942, Japanese Zeros and bombers attacked Bulolo.
At Bulolo, they set fire to three of the Junkers G31 tri-motors, destroying them totally.
Gold dredging work ceased as most of the men employed entered military service.
Five days later, on February 5, 1942, Bulolo was bombed at 11am by five twin-engine bombers.
The discovery of gold at Edie Creek above Wau in 1926 sparked a gold rush which led to the exploitation of the rich deposits of the Bulolo-Watut river system by large-scale mechanised mining.
The rigours and cost of the eight-day walk into the goldfields and the difficulties of building a road from the coast led to the early introduction of an aviation service.
The driving force behind the development of the goldfields was Cecil J. Levien, a former Morobe District Officer, who was described as a “rare and formidable combination of opportunist, practical man and visionary”.
Levien persuaded the directors of Guinea Gold N.L. that startling profits would be made by any aviation company that could provide a service to eliminate the arduous walk between Salamaua and Wau.
He secured an option on a small DH-37 plane in Melbourne and engaged a pilot, E. A. ‘Pard’ Mustar, to bring it to New Guinea. The aviation service was a success from the start.
After two unsuccessful flights around the mountains south of the Markham, no one knew exactly how to find Wau from the air.
Mustar landed at Wau for the first time on April 16, 1937. He began the service the next day with a shipment of six 100lbs bags of rice, charging a shilling a pound, and, making two trips a day, five days a week, carrying 84 passengers and 27, 000lbs of cargo in the first three months.
Rival aviation companies were not long in arriving to share the profits.
Ray Parer, the proprietor of Bulolo Goldfields Air Service, who had been competing keenly with Mustar to be the first to land at Lae, came from Rabaul after many delays, and A. ‘Jerry’ Pentland and P. ‘Skip’ Moody soon joined them.
There was ample business for all and by April 1928, a year after the service began, Guinea Airways (the aviation company that grew from Guinea Gold N.L.) had acquired two extra planes and employed three more pilots and two more mechanics.
In March 1929 a new company, Morlae Airlines, began a weekly Lae-Port Moresby service, meeting ships from Australia and bringing passengers and frozen foods across to Wau, Bulolo, Salamaua and Lae.
Skyways cheapest highways
At first, Bulolo Gold Dredging Ltd and its parent company, Placer Development Ltd, had thought of building a road to the goldfields, but the length of time it would take and the high cost of construction and maintenance persuaded the companies to accept Guinea Airways’ proposition that “skyways are the cheapest highways”.
On the advice of Mustar, Bulolo Gold Dredging purchased three all-metal, tri-motored Junkers G-31 aircraft from Germany, which Guinea Airways was to operate under licence for the gold mining company.
Guinea Airways also purchased a Junkers G-31 of its own. They were huge planes, each capable of carrying a payload of 7100lbs or 14 short tons together.
The airlift began in April 1931 and continued for eight years: the first dredge began work in March 1932, the eighth in November, 1939.
Another crane at the airstrip lifted the heavy machinery into the planes and a rail crane unloaded them at Bulolo.
Eventually operations became so efficient that nine round trips a day were possible.
The airlift was a remarkable undertaking. It pioneered the use of aviation in the transport of heavy cargo and, in the words of one writer, “in every respect, it constituted a world record”.
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: France
Posts: 610
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Troppo:
The Bulolo operation was certainly a great effort and a good read.
Another one worthy of note was the Southern Air Transport Freight project in the early 1990's, between Nadzab and Moro. There were up to three Hercules L382's working each day carrying freight and materials for the oil and gas development in the Southern Highlands.
Tmb
The Bulolo operation was certainly a great effort and a good read.
Another one worthy of note was the Southern Air Transport Freight project in the early 1990's, between Nadzab and Moro. There were up to three Hercules L382's working each day carrying freight and materials for the oil and gas development in the Southern Highlands.
Tmb
Aren't there civil Hercules back in the country doing work into the Southern Highlands for the LNG project ?
I heard that the PAC 750 has become very popular with a few local operators in PNG. They are really fit in between the Cessna 206 and the Twin Otter, and are very cheap to purchase and operate compared to Twin Otters. They out perform the Caravans by quite a bit, and can operate in most cases into all the Twin Otter strips with about a 1 tonne payload.
I heard that the PAC 750 has become very popular with a few local operators in PNG. They are really fit in between the Cessna 206 and the Twin Otter, and are very cheap to purchase and operate compared to Twin Otters. They out perform the Caravans by quite a bit, and can operate in most cases into all the Twin Otter strips with about a 1 tonne payload.
