MissionaryBushPilot

I just bought a Kitfox this week and am excited to start meeting some of you guys. If you're in the Arizona/Utah area and want to fly, let me know!

https://youtu.be/nTNMjZwQ7XY

https://youtu.be/puqAUWrfeQA

https://youtu.be/JHQ8UAjoVVc

We have a pretty well thought out survival kit in our planes

The highlands people have a long tradition of hard work. Some of their drainage ditches have been dated to at least 9,000 years old.

That is very cool. Yes, you have to be a hard worker if you are living off the land, especially this land

Familiar territory. Would have loved a Kodiak in the 60s but the C185s got us there..... most times.

 

Very professional guys = stay careful, the wx hasn't changed, and the valleys no wider. happy dyas,

Yes, having the extra technology these days lowers the stress levels a LOT.

As a former earthmover, I often wonder how so many of those remote airstrips were built?

 

I guess quite a number were built during WW2, when the US Air Force had air-droppable small engineering equipment such as the Clark CA-1 Tractor.

 

But I also wondered if a lot were simply carved out by hand, by the local natives, utilising natural flat features?

Most of the were built by hand. It would take years to carve them out. in fact, they still use mostly hand to build these, with water drainage technique to run the ground down the hill to fill in the low spots. It's crazy

Because PNG is so close to the equator, we don't have many days of strong winds. Saying that though, some days the valleys can get pretty bumpy, and on those days, I don't fly low through them. This particular day, it was perfect weather and zero wind. The airstrips that do have downdrafts are the ones butted up to a steep mountain, and have wind in the afternoons.