Going on leave from the Papuan Gulf in a Catalina to Port Moresby, then by DC6B to Brisbane, Sydney and Perth, 1963.
The engine noise was so loud that a pilot wrote on a small blackboard with chalk to point out places along the coast. The blackboard was passed back to each passenger.
A wonderful aircraft I was fortunate to have three trips in.
Click to enlarge
1 comment:
We used to fly Moresby-Rabaul in old-ish DC3s Kev.
When they reached maximum cruising altitude the condensation would drip down from the unlined overhead struts onto we unsuspecting passengers.
In the late Sixties-early Seventies there was no shortage of PNG folks' animal travellers. I recall on one trip some large pigs strapped in down the rear end of the aircraft.
Plus bamboo cages with live chickens and roosters inside.
They all seem to survive the trip, rickety landing and all.
Of course the Rabaul airstrip was right underneath Matupit volcano the smallest of the ring encircling Rabaul town and its harbour. Matupit exploded during the most recent eruptions which virtually obliterated Rabaul and surrounds forcing district HQ to be moved to Kokopo.
Sad really. Of all the Pacific Island towns we've visited --- including in the Solomons, Tonga and Vanuatu -- Rabaul remains the most picturesque of all.
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