If it was my "old girl", I'd rather she left the laplap on and just brought the gin.

Airstrips PNG
 

It´s been very quiet here lately, so I´ll have to do something to change that.

Chimbu Warrior, you wanted pictures of coastal airstrips, well here goes. Let´s see if you know it. Been closed for at least 22 years, probably even longer.

SP

http://i763.photobucket.com/albums/x...rstripPNGN.jpg

Airstrips PNG
 

And here is the other extreme, probably one of the highest strips in PNG. But if I tell you at what altitude it is, it´ll be too easy to recognize.

SP


http://i763.photobucket.com/albums/x...stripPNGK1.jpg

Samarai(?) and Keglsugl.

Airstrips PNG
 

Chimbu Chuckles: Keglsugl is right.:D Altitude should be somewhere around 8000ft, but you will surely know better than me. Let me know the exact altidude please, as I couldn´t find it on the maps I have.
Samarai is not correct, sorry:=. I´ll wait for some more responses, before I give another tip. :E

Rakanda?? although the last time I landed there i should have been in a boat

Keglsugl elevation is 9250 feet from memory (not bad considering it is 30 years since I last went there).

That is definitely not Rakanda, unless the Duke of York's islands have drifted a fair distance!

Airstrips PNG
 

Thanks CC, and it definitely is not Rakanda!

Kegsugl is 8400 on the chart.

Yer it's not Rakanda, it could be Melakolen (Fene Islands), spelling could be wrong though.

Malekolon
 

No, it is not Malekolon either, unless some major earthworks have taken place.

Travelblog recent photo of Kegsugl:

I think (I´m quite sure) it was quite a big US airbase during WWII. The last time I was there it was nearly completely grown over, but you could still find the bitumen under the grass and trees, which had grown all over the place.
Here is a picure of VH-EFO from pre 1974, loading goats at this airstrip. You can see the bitumen (which dates back to WWII) under the aircraft. But I still won´t tell you where it is.:E

http://i763.photobucket.com/albums/x...lot/VH-EFO.jpg

Anybody got photo's of Boang or Nutuve ??

Billy Vincent, the Taswegian operator from Smithton had many young pilots working for him over the years. They used to carry many goats. He'd say to any enquirer that the plane could carry ten goats, including the pilot.

Finschhafen?
 

There was a big American WWII strip at a place (now) called Nugidu (I think) near Maneba wharf. It had some bitumen still on it but was completely overgrown when I last saw it in 2000.

Storchpilot,
Vivagani or how about one of the islands North of Kavieng, there is one island up there with a long ex WWII strip. The people don't look like highlanders.

It is not Vivigani, nor is it Emirau, the strip you were probably thinking of north-west of Kavieng.

The first strip looks a bit like Buka - but I don't think it is.

That photo of Kegl Sugl must have been taken well after I used to fly in there, as the strip surface looks far better than it was in my day. My recollection is that it had a series of drains filled with crushed rock arranged like chevrons across the strip. (I have a photo of it somewhere). You needed most of the strip to get airborne, although the gorge at the end of the strip plunged thousands of feet down, so we could always take a good load out of there, despite the high density altitude. You could just drop off the end of the strip and turn right to go downhill to Chimbu (Kundiawa).:ooh: The strip surface was quite rough and it was always a relief to get the wheels off the ground on take-off to stop the aircraft shakes and rattles.....

:D:D

Well done Axel. It is Nugidu, the other airstrip in the Finschafen area, north of the Mape river and the Butaweng hospital complex. On the hill opposite the airstrip and the lagoon is a beautiful big house with a tower in the middle, called Malaoba. I´ll post a picture later.