PNG Ples Bilong Tok Tok

[Sharpie]

DC3's; or as Larry Blackman said " They are all C47's!"

Mainly C47b's. with the shortened tailcone from which to hook the glider tug rope to.

Checked up earier today and found that.

(a) 8 April 1961: Patair DC3 VH-PAT burnt out on the ground after an emergency descent from over Kerema en-route to the highlands. Carrying medical supplies that created a chemical fire inflight.(I think hydrochloric and sulfuric acids combined.)

(b) 4 July 1972: Patair DC3 VH-PNB on loan from Ansett-MAL to TAA. total hydraulic failure due to ilegal connection in Auto-pilot or windscreen wiper unit that permitted all fluid to be pumped out. Crew unable to turn unit and leak off. Crew carried out a max weight landing, slight tailwind component and overran the strip into the briny off the threshold of runway 25. Aircraft could have been saved but Ansett was not permitted to pull it from very shallow water by DCA until after inspection. Result; 2-3 tides went through the aircraft. Wings remained in Ansett hangar for years.

(c) 12 July 1972: Ansett-(MAL)APNG: VH-MAE suffered a main gear drag strut failure landing at Wapenamunda. Capts first flight after being checked out. Aircraft damaged beyond repair. Lay on side of strip for years.

Cheers. em tasol.

[HANOI]

VH-PNB

Sharpie

From memory PNB ( Mt Murray ) became the fire practice hull at Madang.
The only parts salvaged were the double cargo doors , the rest written off due salt water corrosion.
Conjecture had it that had the crew ( Geoff Bennett/Kerry Huston ) diverted to Nadzab with its longer runway the aircraft may have been saved.

[Jim Jobe]

Right, it has to have been VH-MAE but was it at Mendi????
I must admit I'm relying heavily on memory here. I saw it on a road trip from Hagen to the Southern Highlands and had assumed it was at Mendi. I've a feeling that there was a plaque with it saying that it had been set up by, I think, the Lions. I also think it mentioned Ansett.
Is there or was there a public park at Mendi or Tari; perhaps that's where I saw it.
Of course, I should have photographed it, shouldn't I!!!!
Thanks for all your comments anyway.
Yours in senility,
Jim

[tinpis]

Could have been VH-MAE. Ron might have been down to WAP for a truck load of spuds and chucked it on, thinking it may have made good boi bar lounge?

Sixtiesrelic I was in PNG when VH-MAE gutsed it. Was that R.O ?
How is the lovely old bugger?

[barryhoc]

Patair DC3 VH-PNB

Apinun all. Some further recollections of VH-PNB incident, as passed to myself by Madang based staff. Mostly already covered I think.

VH-PNB suffered a complete hydraulic failure, on that fateful day, on a trip into the hills and rather than try to stop the aircraft on a short highland airstrip with no brakes it was considered the best thing to do was return to Madang and land on the longer runway. The only problem was that as the aircraft was fully loaded with freight for the highlands it was pretty heavy and therefore required more runway than Madang had to allow the aircraft to stop. The aircraft drifted off the end of the runway and into the soft swampy area by the harbour and due to its weight and the boggy ground sank up to its belly in the mud. The ground engineer Vern Green went to organise a crane to lift the aircraft out of the mud but was told to do nothing because of the insurance and so the perfectly serviceable aircraft sat in the mud and, guess what, the tide came in, as it does, and swamped the aircraft thus completely buggering it and the engines, props, and everything. Great insurance deal wasn't it.

The Captain was Geoff Bennett and I can't remember who the F/O was. (Not Kerry Huston).

Vern Green was the duty engineer at Madang on the day, and he immediately arranged for a crane to lift the aircraft out of the mud, as it had only just entered the mud flats that only went under at high tide. He was advised by Ansett that the insurance company would not allow the aircraft to be moved until it could be assessed, so all he could do is watch the tide slowly come in and ruin a perfectly good aircraft. Cheers.

[sundaun]

WDA Accident

Twas Russ C., great guy recently retired.

[tinpis]

Thanks sundaun

[Sharpie]

VH-MAE

Capt Russ Corney was in the rhs as there was no F/O for the Captain's first command flight after checking-out. How about Brian Mathews.

Russ was extremely lucky in that his feet were not on the pedals, as the stb prop chewed its way into the fuse totalling the rh pedals on the way.

[sixtiesrelic]

Coupla additions from a shakey memory.
Russ's foot was slightly jammed and he had to extricate it. Yes it was "the Leprechaun" in the left seat.
The only things salvagable from the airframe were, an aileron, an elevator and the rudder.
I agree with Tinny. The wings could have gone on a truck over to Mendi, but look at the last photo ... was it worth it?.
The only incident I heard of at Mendi was the story told of Kessey and his Hungarian F.O having a pot sail through the cowl accompanied by much alarming, loud noise.
They were in, and amongst cloud at the time and 'the powers that be' smiled on them and voila a hole appeared with Mendi below. Kessey put her in a spiral and got her down quick taim.






The wrecked airframe sat intact on the side of the strip for weeks before it became a health hazard.
Guvanmen had thoughtfully put a haus pek pek next to the strip for Oli.
Gavanmen soon decided she was a health hazard and chopped her up.
.


The DC-3 PNB didn't go off the end of Madang, it started turning at an angle of about a degree to the left from the time the tail wheel touched and majestically did the last few feet of deceleration off the side of the grass strip and over the rock bank. There was still runway in front of her just not QUITE enough beside her.
F.O. was it Chris Pennicuik? was covered in Hydraulic oil and everything in the cockpit was as slippery as hell and nothing to wipe her with.
She was buggered when the mains snagged on rocks as the grader tried pulling her back up to the runway and stretched her.

[barryhoc]

Patair DC3 VH-PNB and Talair Staff LIst.

Good shots "sixties"..............as usual. Yes, C.P. is the generally mentioned F/O. If I can find a contact I'll ask him.

I recently scanned by request a Talair Staff List for email. I think Sharpie gave it to me a couple of years ago. Probably not suitable for posting here as it is 13 pages, aout 600 names, but if anyone else would like it give me a yell.

email: [email protected]

Cheers.

[Sharpie]

Kessey

And a follow-on heard about Goulash, was that he kept his little pinky ON the fearther button resulting in the prop cycling in-out of feather! True?

Above cloud at the time with Guiliwe somewhere in front and below. A seat biter no doubt.

[tinpis]

Same fella going into SYD F27 freighter.
ATC asks would we like straight in 16?(Cancel noise abatement)
"Vy , vy, vy? ve are set up for 34, no thanks."

Looks at WX radar, hmmm.....about to enter a nice little cell near Kurnell
Bang! Clang! Whump! "VOT! ISS THIS!?"

Funny guy to work with

Hope hes enjoying his retirement and has lashed out and bought a new car

[tinpis]

Ha Ha
Same fella, Cairns, his last trip on F27. He gets sweety hostie to take a snap of me and him standing next to the AC
"Dont look so tall!" he says to me
So I slipped off my shoes and knelt on them
Hostie near pee'd herself laughing
Yep, I've got the photty

[sixtiesrelic]

I've seen that photo of the Dwarf standing beside the baldy two and a half bar commander.

[Sharpie]

We have not!

So it should be shown here for posterity!

[Sharpie]

Another Ex TAL Pilot seeks fame.

9:23PM Tuesday 14 April, 2009 Coast pilot escapes death in gyroplane crash
12:00a.m. 10th April 2009
| By Nikkii Joyce


Close Call: Australian Sports Rotorcraft Association operations manager Allan Wardill is back in the saddle, but staying on the ground, two days after a near fatal crash in his gyrocopter. Photo: Contributed
As his gyroplane plummeted 300 metres towards ice-cold Tasmanian waters, Sunshine Coast pilot Allan Wardill knew he would have more to do than merely survive the impact.

And that thought was not based on instinct. Mr Wardill, of Mooloolaba, knew from experience.

The 59-year-old is an air crash investigator.

"Six years ago a man survived when his gyrocopter crashed into water, but he wasn't able to release the harness and he drowned," Mr Wardill said.

The story ran through his mind on Monday as he sat, still strapped into his four-year-old machine, immersed upside down in the Tamar River.

Fifteen minutes earlier, Mr Wardill and a friend were preparing to take to the air to conduct a flight-plan safety check for this weekend's National Gyroplane Championships at Clarence Point.

"Mayday, mayday, I'm going down," were the only words Mr Wardill was able to relay before his gyroplane hit the water.

Mr Wardill said he was following Tasmanian Greg Mitchell when he heard a mechanical "clunk" in the rotor head.

He said no amount of his expertise could right the gyroplane, with nothing left for him to do but "brace myself" as the vertical gyroplane hit the river, rotors first.

"It doesn't matter that it's water; hitting it from that height dead-on would have been like hitting a brick wall," Mr Wardill said.

"The only reason I'm here is the rotors broke the water before I hit it."

Mr Wardill was able to free himself from the harness and when he broke the surface he began the 300-metre swim to shore. Horrified witnesses were already on their way to his rescue.

Miraculously, Mr Wardill suffered only bruising to his ribs, but his gyroplane remains at the bottom of the Tamar River.

Investigations into the crash will begin once the wreck is recovered, but not until after this weekend's 15th Australian Sports Rotorcraft Association National Gyroplane Championships, which begin today.

Mr Wardill said the phone conversation with his wife of 20 years, Deana, ended any hope of him competing.

"I told her 'I've been swimming' and she asked me 'voluntary or involuntary'," Mr Wardill said.

"I said the gyroplane was at the bottom of the river and she said what most wives would say if their husbands planned on going back up straight away," he said with a laugh.

But his days of soaring in the sky are far from over.

"Of course I'll be up there... strewth," Mr Wardill said, incredulous at the thought of anything otherwise.

[tinpis]

Ever wondered what was on top of Wilhelm?
Cold nothing
Taken by a mate the other day.

[AxelPNG]

Love the kid in the t-shirt! Standing on top of Mt Wilhelm is the coldest I have ever been in my entire life.

[barryhoc]

Bob McDonald, (R.I.P.).

I have just received sad news advising the passing of longtime PNG family member, Bob McDonald, (R.I.P.). I met Bob here at Coolum during the mid/late '90's, and got to know him quite well until he moved away a couple of years back. I mention Bob here because of a PNG aviation link. Bob's father P.J. McDonald, and later Bob, had Ilolo Plantation, (McDonald's Corner), just outside POM, on the southern end of the Kokoda Trail. The aviation link, (as you may well know), is P.J.McDonald, who financed Ray Parer into Morlae (Moresby/Lae) Airlines in 1928, which operated the first scheduled service between those two centres, as well as servicing the Wau/Bululo goldfields. Bob McDonald was responsible for the welded "digger" monument which stands at Ilolo to this day last I heard. He was also involved in another Kokoda Trail monument which stands at Sherwood RSL, and Bob describes that below in his own words:

"It's been a long time but I have at last found where the rock from Ilolo Plantation ended up - the Sherwood RSL.
Back in the early 70's I was approached by Ted Hanson, a keen supporter of the RSL, with a request to find a rock from the Kokoda Trail/Track to send south to some RSL Club. Ted was involved in transport and shipping and would be able to on-carriage it from Port Moresby.
I thought the volcanic conglomerate formation that bordered each side of the Rouna Gorge would be suitable for it is quite distinctive with its peppering of smooth pebbles fused together with lava magma (may not be technically the word) but descriptive enough. If you cut it in half you'd find the small rocks continue all the way through. This rock formation is quite rare. The escarpments of it carry on around Hom Brom Bluff to the back of Ilolo Plantation (McDonald's Corner).
I was easy enough to choose a typical rock from the foot of the Track/Trail but another matter to find one of suitable size. It is very heavy and hard as hell and usually comes in escarpment sizes.
But I did, right out the back of Ilolo and it was just sitting there on top of the dirt. So with a team of natives we built a ramp of small rocks up to the back of the Land Cruiser tray and with much grunt and yelling managed to roll it on board which caused the front of the vehicle lift of the ground.
With a dozen boys clinging to the front to get it back on the ground we slowly made our way five kilometres back to the homestead.
We then lifted it with a chain hoist - luckily the roof didn't cave in - onto a pallet on the back of a larger truck.
Delivered this to Ted in Moresby and until yesterday didn't know where it went.
Be aware when you move it to your new site that it is VERY heavy."

[tinpis]

Taken this week
The last 34 years of "progress"