PVT was a 310K actually. I own it now. :ok: she's an old sweety. :}

Tom Peninsa
 

I had a lot of time for Tom as we flew together a lot in the early days of his career. In fact we went to Acupulco 1975 when the dreaded pangapas joined IFALPA.

Funny as a fight as the association had rather meagre funds to cover the trip (no visa/amex then) and our first stop-over was Sydney. I had a few Kiwi mates in QF and wandered off to see them, leaving my mate with a few greenbacks to see him through to Acapulco via Canada.

The next overnight was Honolulu and I took Tom up to the international crew room for a few ales, saying your shout! but my mate had no shekels remaining after wandering around the KC fountain. hohoho. We remained on meagre rashions after that. RIP Tom. Great days.:ok:

Ronnie Biggs is out of the cliink but in poor health.
I think somebody should ask the question of him before its too late, did he charter an aircraft from PNG to pick him up around about the time Cec Randell went missing? :rolleyes:

ZK-REX 1/ 4/58 Cessna 310B c/n 35654 ex N11B/N5454A (to VH-REX 12/58 rest 3/59) to VH-REI cx 4/60 to VH-RSY 8/60 to VH-CYO 5/64 to VH-TTM 12/64 to P2-TTM 7/76 to VH-TTM 12/85.

As VH-RSY she was at the Royal Aero Club of NSW. Airline pilot training scheme the club operated with Tom Long and Blackjack Walker. First flew her 17 June 1967 at Cootamundra. Jack Masling replaced the O-470s with IO-520s. Very noisy bird. Had her at Horsham cloud seeding during May, June '68. No idea where she ended up.

The "Flying Razorblade" seemed not to be a popular choice of weapon in PNG. I cant think anytime I saw one in the highlands.
If they had of worked I'm sure the likes of Hellyadore von Tsushnigg would have had them flat out Hagen Tari but the little Baron seemed to fit the bill

Tinpis, if you are referring to the C310 as the "Flying Razorblade", then you are correct. I flew P2-TTM and P2-PVT quite extensively for about 6 months, all throughout PNG on basically corporate charter, which was OK as we weren't trying to load coffee bags or bilums full of buai and bully beef. But in an RPT role they would have suffered due lack of storage space and grunt to carry it.

Ze Baron now that was a real balus bilong bush, I suppose that's why Dennis and Helly chose them. The Talair ones were real workhorses and many strips we used to operate it into were right on the edge of the envelope. Teptep, Bali (West New Britain version) and Boang could always be counted on to make the pacemaker work overtime.

How many did Talair have in its prime? I figured we had about 15 (circa 1980), not counting the few that Max Parker used to use for SEP practice!! :O

When I joined TAL I believe there was only one Baron, VH-GKA, old split window doing sterling service in Hagen. Somebody will put me right if I'm wrong.
They lost another not long before in a T/O accident at Goroka
Other Barons were inherited from Macair takeover in '75
Things were expanding so fast about that time, Dennis probably didnt know what he had in the fleet

Agreed, bloody amazing what you could coax out of them.

Heli had nothing to do with the choosing the Baron, I think he may have been at Aerial Tours at the time. The first Baron came in 1962 (?) and was Junior's decision, along with McCook. TAL only had that first Baron a few months when Brian McCook departed Minj (or Banz) for Mendi, when, unbeknown to Brian, a main wheel fell off. One of Peter Howard's labourers found the wheel in the grass, Peter contacted FS Madang and Brian was diverted to Goroka for the first Baron wheels up.

I have no idea how many Barons TAL/Talair owned in total however I do recall the maximum number on the register at any time was nine, tending to confirm High 6's estimate of 15 could be correct as I suspect the insurance company bought at least six over the years.

Scotty gutsed one at Liagam? A cargo net caught in the extended manual gear winder handle.

Well from among the cobwebs of my memory.......

GKM
GKN ended its days in the Tari Gap with Ray Hoffman
GKO ran off the strip at Rakanda and was stripped of useful bits
GKQ scrapped in BNE due corrosion
GKR still going strong when I left in 85. Don't know what became of it
GKS ended its days in the Tomba, Mal Hawkes
GKT scrapped due corrosion
GKU mi lusim tingting, but might be the one Ian Holder took to Cairns
GKV scrapped I think
GKW sold to Pacific Helicopters
GKX still going when I left

That's 11........

There were more than that - for example, one pranged at Goroka in '69, Ian Oliver? When I think about it, the total number may have been more than 15 if one includes Solair.

What was GKP? Was that the one Maxi turned into an amphibian in the Huon Gulf? GKQ was scrapped soon after the AF hanger was built, when it was discovered the wings mounts were a problem. Later, a fix was found and other TAL Barons were repaired.

But I think there were only nine "servicable" or at least registered at any one time, plus the Solair aircraft? TAL peaked at 69 aircraft, not including the Goroka bone yard (and the piston Porter.)

Some Barons Goroka 1979


http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y15...is/PNG/gkn.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y15...is/PNG/gku.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y15...is/PNG/gkt.jpg

Great pictures of a nambawan balus!!

On the Baron roll call, I believe one went missing between Gurney and Kiriwina and to this day nothing has ever been found, the pilot was Fox. Can't remember the date.

Ian tindales excellent TALAIR pictures found here Flickr: Ian Tindale's stuff tagged with goroka

Anyone remember him at all?

Fantastic pics....but...Talair had a Aztruck?:eek:

Well you learn something new every day:ooh:

How strange! I was there in 78/79. And I had an Aztec endorsement.
But I never saw an Aztec??

That fleet in '79 was HUGE by comparison to when I started. Some aircraft were not even painted in the TAL blue and yellow screaming ****ehawk scheme
I can recognise Baron von Helly in those photos he hadn't changed much.

Updates..........

Apparently GKU was the Baron Max took waterskiing in the Huon Gulf.

GKP was definitely a 402 (and a good one as I recall).

GKZ was the Aztec and had been inherited from Panga Airways (along with the C-205 and a couple of other "exotics"). It was very unloved in Talair, but flew occasionally. Eventually Max ferried it to Vila after RDB took over Air Mel, and it sat there not flying much. Apparently ingested a lot of water sitting in the rain (I never liked those fuel caps on Comanches and Aztecs), and someone had an engine failure and ditched the aircraft. Still somewhere under water there I believe.

SET was the Agwagon, ferried back to Oz by Ian Leslie.

Parked, with extreme prejudice, on the side of Mt Otto (from memory) by one Ian David Leslie in early 1988. He and a Talair engineed (only POB) survived with minor injuries. When asked what happened IDL replied "I dunno - one minute I was flying along and the next I was going backwards with no wings"

It was a nice 402 - and straight out of a major the day before:ok:

Bwaaaahahahaha. I heard that exact sentence from a Drom pilot we hauled out of the wreck some years ago. the only addition was "fark that was loud" :}