first landing on indigenous tribe runway

Incredible!

 

TWO entire chickens!!!!!

Phooey on 14 piddling years: two entire chickens!!!

(I have friends and family in PNG, so I know how much two entire chickens cost such a remote village.)

 

Excellent!

 

Thats impressive.

 

They were worried that if they'd stuck him with THREE chickens, his plane might not make it back up off the strip. Dead man for certain if they'd somehow found him a goat.

 

Funny. When I was watching the approach I was thinking that was a job for a turbine Pilatus.

 

Well of course. Pilatus are the best aircraft

 

"The owner of this website (Chonday - The Most Interesting Videos) has banned your IP address."

What the hey?

 

I am friends with an airline pilot that flies a lot in the mountains of Idaho and Washington in his Husky. He has video's of landing on similar strips that are as steep as this one in Papua but a lot shorter. When we lived in Friday Harbor, San Juan Islands, San Juan Airlines had stops on the beach of Waldron Island and the spine of Spieden Island. The FAA sent an inspector to see why the multi-engine rule was not enforced on all of their airplanes. The owner of the airline took the FAA man on a tour of their routes and after landing at Waldron, Spieden, and Shaw, (much like the Papua strip) the inspector left without saying much. They didn't hear anymore about it from the FAA. Occasionally I flew with an aerial UPS outfit that was operated by a friend and it was really fun to land on some of the underdeveloped strips. I got to like the C-206.

 

yea its blocked at my work.......might try it at home tonight

 

A sudden cross-wind could be deadly with that wall of rocks on the right.

 

It looked like the aircraft started lifting off about 1/2 way down the strip. The problem with that steep slope is the take off abort point is probably 1/4 way down the strip!

Also if 2 chickens represents substantial wealth, how can the village afford to get things in and out by air? Or is it the government that's paying for air service?

 

Some more one-way runways CVF (France) and LUA (Nepal). Both about 1700' long and high altitude (6500' and 9300')
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That was a very TV interesting series to watch.. "Worst place to be a pilot"

Here are some episodes I found with a quick search Worst Place to be a Pilot - Episode Guide - All 4

For those of you on FB I've been following the doings of one of the pilots since leaving Susi Air: https://www.facebook.com/IndoPilot/

 

The entire series was on YouTube - may still be. I've probably watched it 5 times all the way through. Fascinating business and some great/terrifying footage. All about ex pats who go to Indonesia to get hours in crazy situations like that in hopes of landing a gig at BA or another major.

 

YouTube link https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XqkjRxzztJQ

 

I just heard an interesting story about a small inter-island carrier elsewhere in the US that got around the multi engine thing by using aircraft equipped with floats. Apparently there is some kind of exception for sea planes. Now the funny thing is that they almost never actually make water landings but by having floats they can use their single engine aircraft. It seems to me like the floats would add a ton of drag and outweigh the benefits but I suppose the tourists like the experience of flying in a sea plane even though it takes off and lands from normal runways.

 

Not to change the topic, but a place called Saba ( A dutch island in the Caribbean) is supposed to have the shortest commercial runway at 1300'. and a plane can only land if the wind conditions are ideal.

Its super cool to fly in and out of there, and really makes me respect the pilots who do it multiple times a day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiVM0w9YquQ

 

Not surprised a Pilatus Porter and a Twin Otter are in the mix here with these short take offs and landings. Both are fun planes to jump from!

-mick

 

There is a scene in the movie "Air America" where Mel Gibson and Robert Downey land, I believe, a Helio Courier on a strip like that that was supposed to be in Laos.

 

AA, SAT and others used Couriers a lot over there. They could get them in and out of some incredible places.

It's been said they landed one in the Pentagon courtyard to show off.

 

I guess the guy knew that the ancestors of those folks were head hunters? (the real ones not the dumb corporate idiots)

 

Found it! Actually it was a Turbo-Porter, just like the one in the subject video.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vscvM8ysAwM[/ame]

 

That Pilatus reminds me of a Storch..and the folks seem more advanced than a true cargo cult..but that's the vibe I got. All in fun..cheers RE