PNG Ples Bilong Tok Tok

[tail wheel]

Then you are probably amongst the absolute minimal minority of PNG aviation employees that didn't have a drink with Mudguard........

[Pinky the pilot]

Dunno, Taily. I seem to vaguely remember seeing someone looking like him at the Club Dero from time to time but just do not remember ever drinking with him.

I may have seen him with GH and joined the group for a bit but...

Too many flamin' years and bottles of Red ago!

[Bravohotel]

Muddy

Tail Wheel Do you know what year that photo was taken I was a Talair newbe joined March 1991 (Goroka Engineering Supply Manager) and was almost the last of the team to turn off the lights I was offered a job with Airlink in Rabaul and arrived in December 1993 ended up in Madang following the eruption and following the purchase of Airlink by Pacific Helicopters I ended up back in Goroka went finish in September 2015.

[Laeloya]

RIP Mudguard

A wonderful character was Muddy!! RIP indeed!!
I think that photo looks like it was taken closer to 1980 than 1990.
Would like to be a fly on the wall when he rocks up inside the pearly gates and sees RDB again!!!!!!

[Hugh Mungus]

Pinky and Bravo, I think the photo and events depicted therein occured a full decade before your arrival in Paradise. R I P Muddy

[tail wheel]

Skippy looks far too young for the photos to be in the late 80s or 90s!

I pinched that photo from the Facebook site of a pilot that left Talair and PNG before 1980.

I haven't seen Mudguard for around 25 years but I'm sure he would have looked far older at his passing.

[Pinky the pilot]

Thanks Hugh and Taily; Confirms my suspicions.

[Bravohotel]

I remember the guys at Talair talking about Muddy and around that time I joined I'am sure he was living in Cairns.

[Capt Fathom]

Does he actually have a real name?

[Night Beetle]

Originally Posted by Capt Fathom

Does he actually have a real name?

Paul Howard

[tail wheel]

I remember the guys at Talair talking about Muddy and around that time I joined I'am sure he was living in Cairns.

Well known, a legend in his own lunch time. Knew every bar intimately. Yes, he lived in Cairns for many years.

[BB Campbell]

Originally Posted by sundaun

He's polishing the Raybans Tinny, disguises all sorts of decadence!! Last saw Eamon at Aerial Tours 69 Wewak. Have an idea he went to TAA. Bro Urban was building a homebuilt up near Sissano and later died. Gordon was a larger than life character (Kiwi) who had the motel at Vanimo and was helped by his brother. A cleancut group!!!

Gordon Campbell was my father, did you know him well? Can you tell me what you knew about him back then? I would be very intrigued to know. I have a lot of photos from his life in New Guinea but not a lot stories to accompany them. Sadly, he passed away in NZ in 1999.

[olderairhead]

Birrell gave him the nickname.

[tail wheel]

BB Campbell. Not many here would have been based in Vanimo although many of us transited Vanimo on occasion.

Sundaun was an air service based in Wewak, which is about as close as you will get. Talair, Aerial Tours/Douglas Airways and Wirui Airservices (Catholic Mission) also had Wewak bases.

Perhaps send a PM to Sundaun direct?

Speaking of Sepik hoteliers........ In the '70s Wuvulu Island off Wewak was being developed by US interests into a planned island Utopia for wealthy Yanks. One of the principal investors and a regular visitor was the famous actor, William Holden.

Wuvulu whistled up a TAL/Talair charter to pick up William Holden and the Trader was sent off in a C402. Holden also required hotel accommodation and the Branch Manager, probably Sluggo, booked a room at the Wewak Hotel. He advised the hotelier (whose name alludes me at present) Holden was a VIP "You know William Holden don't you?" "Sure do" was the reply.

The Trader returned with Holden who was driven to the hotel and met on arrival by the hotelier.

"Welcome Mr Holden. Seems I know you well, I once had a great car made by your company."

Only in the land of the unexpected!

[Fris B. Fairing]

RIP Paul Howard

Several of Paul's fellow aviation historians have asked that I post this image (source unknown) in Paul's memory. It was taken at an airshow in Japan in September 2016. Paul had been looking forward to the advertised US military participation but he was disappointed to find that it was limited to "one of these pilotless things". He was so disgusted that he refused to photograph it on a matter of principle!

[nzaviate]

Wuvulu, remembered well

Was a Douglas pilot based in Vanimo, the boss was an Australian married to a Wuvulu lady. Great guy who would 'shout' the pilots beers at the local.
Remembered the 'special weekend charters' to Wuvulu. Talair with one Twin-otter and a drum of kero, myself in a Douglas BN2, leaving Saturday afternoon, returning first thing Monday.
The snorkeling around the reef was first class.
One night went out at night to catch coconut crabs. The beach had plenty of coconut crabs on the rocks, swear you were on another planet. Return to base with the ute tray with crabs and three personal, including myself, on the back, that is until we have to navigate the only Y intersection on the island, at which stage the tray, crabs and 'pirates' were tip into the bush. Our toes were safe because the locals had tied the crabs up with vine!
The owner of the ute stayed up all night to repair the tray after we were dropped off.
Was told the the locals were Polynesian, with there long straight hair. The Melanesian had missed the Island in the big migration due to the low lying nature of the Islands.

[angry ant]

Vale Ian Young

I have been informed that Ian passed away early yesterday morning, Sat.6th
May.
No other details at the moment, will keep you informed.

Apinun Wantoks

A Sad Ant

[tail wheel]

Chimbu Chuck posted elsewhere:

Vale John Simon - Simmo. Passed away last night from a ruptured duodenal ulcer in Cairns Base Hospital.

One of life's true characters. Ex Talair and my training Captain all those years ago on the F28 at PX. A genuinely funny man and one of the finest pilots I have ever shared a cockpit with.
RIP old mate.

I would have thought taken all too early??

Great guy, hard worker, heaps of fun.

Sadly missed........

[chimbu warrior]

10 years jail time for Wartoto | Loop PNG

One less aviation entrepreneur in PNG. Of course everything could change after the election.

[troppo]

Aaah...PNG/Melanesian Corporate Finance 101. Steal it, launder it and hope you don't get caught. Someone didn't get their 'entitlement' under the equity theory.