Steepest, shortest, highest, most bent, overgrown airstrip you’ve ever seen.
thanks Willy,
yep that's much better now - sadly it was before video cameras :/
we were hired by MAF and went to about a dozen strips stretching east and south of Nalca.
They were still building the settlements - choppers would fly US volunteers in to form the strips using hydraulic pressure - long pipes bringing in high pressure water from above the strip to literally carve them out.
Then C206/C207 or RAM Grand Commanders brought in portable sawmills and carpenters to make the fabulous homes for the missionaries - designs were copies of California beach homes. Spectacular. (the Commanders had reinforced fuselage bottom skins to allow for quick gear retraction on takeoff
There was one strip eastern end of the range (can't remember the name) - I swear it felt like a constant 25% but probably less than 20 - watching a 206 land from inside the house the strip seemed to go diagonally across the window.
Happy landings Willy, I really enjoyed my time there - and as you may know they bought a Nomad - I did the endorsement/rating for the MAF pilots.
Sad to hear of the tragedy some time after I left.
yep that's much better now - sadly it was before video cameras :/
we were hired by MAF and went to about a dozen strips stretching east and south of Nalca.
They were still building the settlements - choppers would fly US volunteers in to form the strips using hydraulic pressure - long pipes bringing in high pressure water from above the strip to literally carve them out.
Then C206/C207 or RAM Grand Commanders brought in portable sawmills and carpenters to make the fabulous homes for the missionaries - designs were copies of California beach homes. Spectacular. (the Commanders had reinforced fuselage bottom skins to allow for quick gear retraction on takeoff
There was one strip eastern end of the range (can't remember the name) - I swear it felt like a constant 25% but probably less than 20 - watching a 206 land from inside the house the strip seemed to go diagonally across the window.
Happy landings Willy, I really enjoyed my time there - and as you may know they bought a Nomad - I did the endorsement/rating for the MAF pilots.
Sad to hear of the tragedy some time after I left.
Thread Starter
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: .
Posts: 55
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Do you remember any of the other strips you went to?
The shortest in Papua were Tanggeam and Hukimo. Tanggeam was 210 meters, average 9% slope, at 4300'. Hukimo was 210 meters at 5900' and 17% average although the top is into the 20s. Big difference in their effective lengths. Both were new strips when we started going to them a few years back.
Bilai was an older strip, 280 meters, 3% slope, at 5400'. Even though you can go around until you touch down, it would have been an interesting one in a 185. About twenty strips 300 meters and less.
There were about a dozen strips with 20-22% average slopes and another two dozen average 16 to 19%, several with maximum slopes above 20%.
Last edited by StudentPilot479; 3rd Jan 2021 at 07:59.
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: South of the Border
Posts: 82
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Komako - a morning strip. Don’t go there after lunch cause of the tailwinds. Unquote.
Whistling up the river valley from the south one afternoon I noticed the windsock had nothing on it. Perfect. I’ll whip in and out and that’s one less job tomorrow.
Normal checks and approach, committed to land with the asi pegged at 65 knots. Zooming over the fence thinking we are way too fast.
With hard braking and sliding up the dog leg towards the bank at the end we came to a stop about 2 feet short of the spinner of my C206.
Those fockers had loaded the windsock with stones so anything less than a force ten gale was never going to move it.
Then there was Hauwabungo( spell check) Don’t go there in the early morning. Unquote. For another time 😁
I earned my ANO 28 mostly in the Huon and Menyamya areas.
Whistling up the river valley from the south one afternoon I noticed the windsock had nothing on it. Perfect. I’ll whip in and out and that’s one less job tomorrow.
Normal checks and approach, committed to land with the asi pegged at 65 knots. Zooming over the fence thinking we are way too fast.
With hard braking and sliding up the dog leg towards the bank at the end we came to a stop about 2 feet short of the spinner of my C206.
Those fockers had loaded the windsock with stones so anything less than a force ten gale was never going to move it.
Then there was Hauwabungo( spell check) Don’t go there in the early morning. Unquote. For another time 😁
I earned my ANO 28 mostly in the Huon and Menyamya areas.
I also had the privilege to operate a Dash 8 into Chimbu, together with quite a few others.
All the 4 stage takeoff criteria’s for a Part 121 aeroplane out of Chimbu don’t comply with anything, however the regulator in PNG approved the operation.
Boss Meri hated me going to Chimbu, probably because she is a Mogi Meri!!
All the 4 stage takeoff criteria’s for a Part 121 aeroplane out of Chimbu don’t comply with anything, however the regulator in PNG approved the operation.
Boss Meri hated me going to Chimbu, probably because she is a Mogi Meri!!
Thread Starter
Thanks for putting up the Ononge video, Willie - I remember doing some training circuits in the Bou there, swapping over crews in the front so some of the time you were down the back watching through the cabin windows, with the oleos hammering up and down like pistons on a steam engine!
Willie, I think the shortest strip in PNG was for a short time was Tapen. It’s remains are still visible about 10 Nm down the valley from Tep Tep. This is just a bit further to the west of Kabuam from where you were. It was closed when I flew in that part of the world, but one of my good mates (RIP) had apparently landed there. He pointed it out on the way into Tep Tep one day. The strip looked a little like what Two_Dogs posted previously except if I remember correctly it was not at the top of the mountain. The strip was only 500ft long with about 10 degrees slope and the catholic priest apparently had it built. He had something like a C182 with a Robertson STOL conversion. He put the Cessna on its roof fairly early on (it might have been his first attempt) and then had a further landing accident once the aircraft was fixed. The then PNG DCA closed it to all except Army PL6 Porters. I don’t think it lasted more than 6 months. The strip would have been built around Independence. I first saw it about 10 years later in the early 80’s.
The guys operating out of Lae and later Nadzab into the strips in the Finisterre’s certainly got a good grounding in both PNG weather and STOL operations. Anyone else add to the Tapen story?
Beez51
The guys operating out of Lae and later Nadzab into the strips in the Finisterre’s certainly got a good grounding in both PNG weather and STOL operations. Anyone else add to the Tapen story?
Beez51
Forget the angle - it was the pigs that worried me
Thread Starter
Willie, I think the shortest strip in PNG was for a short time was Tapen. It’s remains are still visible about 10 Nm down the valley from Tep Tep. This is just a bit further to the west of Kabuam from where you were. It was closed when I flew in that part of the world, but one of my good mates (RIP) had apparently landed there. He pointed it out on the way into Tep Tep one day. The strip looked a little like what Two_Dogs posted previously except if I remember correctly it was not at the top of the mountain. The strip was only 500ft long with about 10 degrees slope and the catholic priest apparently had it built. He had something like a C182 with a Robertson STOL conversion. He put the Cessna on its roof fairly early on (it might have been his first attempt) and then had a further landing accident once the aircraft was fixed. The then PNG DCA closed it to all except Army PL6 Porters. I don’t think it lasted more than 6 months. The strip would have been built around Independence. I first saw it about 10 years later in the early 80’s.
The guys operating out of Lae and later Nadzab into the strips in the Finisterre’s certainly got a good grounding in both PNG weather and STOL operations. Anyone else add to the Tapen story?
Beez51
The guys operating out of Lae and later Nadzab into the strips in the Finisterre’s certainly got a good grounding in both PNG weather and STOL operations. Anyone else add to the Tapen story?
Beez51
Man Bilong Balus long PNG
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Looking forward to returning to Japan next year, but in the meantime continuing the never ending search for a bad bottle of Red!
Age: 69
Posts: 2,960
Received 89 Likes
on
51 Posts
I bet, once you’ve opened the taps, you’re out of options almost immediately I would imagine.
Once you released the brakes you were committed for take off.
How do you land on slopes of 10%-20%? Is finals a climb so to make something like a normal-ish glide path? Or is it a monster rotate from a windshield filled with ground like dive bombing?