Silly places to put a "runway" - Papua
Discussion
It's been a while since I posted up some of these photos of approaches which I know you lot all enjoy. Now that I'm based in Papua, I've got a lot more to share with you all. Here's a a few to whet the appetite until I locate some even more fun places to land an aircraft:
Pogapa - 5900ft
Doufu - 400ft
Sinak - 6700ft
Agadugume - 8700ft
Alama - 3050ft
Jila - 4100ft
Beoga - 5600ft
Beoga from the ground
Tsinga - 6500ft
Bugalaga - 5700ft
Lumo - 3500ish ft (I think!)
Check out my blog for more updates from the mountains and jungles of Papua
Pogapa - 5900ft
Doufu - 400ft
Sinak - 6700ft
Agadugume - 8700ft
Alama - 3050ft
Jila - 4100ft
Beoga - 5600ft
Beoga from the ground
Tsinga - 6500ft
Bugalaga - 5700ft
Lumo - 3500ish ft (I think!)
Check out my blog for more updates from the mountains and jungles of Papua
Thanks all. It certainly beats sitting at the desk of my old IT job that's for sure and I can't see myself at the pointy end of a big jet in the near future either. GA is way too much fun!
It's challenging place to work for sure. The density altitude in some of the strips means you're carrying 10-20kts extra groundspeed over a sea level landing, and that's before you add in the average 5-10kts tailwinds that come by late morning.
As for go-arounds, forget it! At a number of the strips, once you're into the valley and on final approach the only option is to land regardless of what happens next. If people or animals decide to enter the airstrip at that point you still have to land. Thankfully most of the locals are aware of the dangers and keep off the airstrips and animals tend to run at the sound of a turboprop bearing down on them.
It's challenging place to work for sure. The density altitude in some of the strips means you're carrying 10-20kts extra groundspeed over a sea level landing, and that's before you add in the average 5-10kts tailwinds that come by late morning.
As for go-arounds, forget it! At a number of the strips, once you're into the valley and on final approach the only option is to land regardless of what happens next. If people or animals decide to enter the airstrip at that point you still have to land. Thankfully most of the locals are aware of the dangers and keep off the airstrips and animals tend to run at the sound of a turboprop bearing down on them.
Edited by Moose. on Sunday 9th December 02:37
How are you finding PNG? I did a stint in POM for a few years (1997-2000) but had to travel around a fair bit flying in planes like yours, landing on strips like that.
Also flew into a remote area by helicopter to repossess some bulldozers - which went well until we couldn't get the 'copter to restart to leave... Round 2 of the negotiations was interesting!
Great place once you get out of the POM/Lae.
Also flew into a remote area by helicopter to repossess some bulldozers - which went well until we couldn't get the 'copter to restart to leave... Round 2 of the negotiations was interesting!
Great place once you get out of the POM/Lae.
It's about as close as you can get to the flying they did in Air America I reckon. Same aircraft but with less guns 
Papua is actually part of Indonesia and so in a different country to PNG which is independent. Same island though with the same kind of terrain and naked people; although the locals here are less likely to take pot shots at pilots. They do kick off occasionally over the Indonesian rule but we try to keep out of that as it can get pretty nasty if a bunch of villages all get together and come down from the mountains to storm the one of the main towns. There was a few locals killed the other night just down the road from our house during a recent riot.
Anyway, here's a few more pics for you all, taken from the video I'm putting together filmed mainly with GoPro cameras:
Papua is actually part of Indonesia and so in a different country to PNG which is independent. Same island though with the same kind of terrain and naked people; although the locals here are less likely to take pot shots at pilots. They do kick off occasionally over the Indonesian rule but we try to keep out of that as it can get pretty nasty if a bunch of villages all get together and come down from the mountains to storm the one of the main towns. There was a few locals killed the other night just down the road from our house during a recent riot.
Anyway, here's a few more pics for you all, taken from the video I'm putting together filmed mainly with GoPro cameras:
More great stuff thanks !
The Airstrips you land on appear to be without any support facilties ,do you have any radio contact with anyone on the ground prior to your landing, surely you don't just land assuming the strip is clear of any debris or excavations .....
Suppose you had a problem with the aircraft are you able to fettle everything yourself and what about fuel ? So many questions but I am intrigued, are you just shooting vids and pics leaving out the view of a massive facilty lurking in the forest adjacent to the strips !!!
Rower
The Airstrips you land on appear to be without any support facilties ,do you have any radio contact with anyone on the ground prior to your landing, surely you don't just land assuming the strip is clear of any debris or excavations .....
Suppose you had a problem with the aircraft are you able to fettle everything yourself and what about fuel ? So many questions but I am intrigued, are you just shooting vids and pics leaving out the view of a massive facilty lurking in the forest adjacent to the strips !!!
Rower
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