A flight to forget
Oh what a flight
Okuk's Last Flight
B707 Anecdotes
B707 Introduction
A Biblical Story
A Biblical Story 2
A Biblical Story 3
Forbidden Fruits
Joe's Jolly (Poem)
The Golfer
Suitably Restrained
PX Advertisment 1
PX Advertisment 2
PX Advertisment 3
PX Article 1
PX Article 2
PX Article 3
The Check Ride
First and Last Flt.
First Command
DC3 KOK - POM
The Holiday
Friends at Last
History of P2ANQ
Ferry Flight
Crayfish
FO Cassanova
Larry Blackman
Secret Revealed
Airbus A300
Cargo Capers
Doing it Differently
Side Slip
Larry Blackman
4th Floor Memo
International Arsonist
Office Works
Thru Eyes of a Hostie
Airline Anecdotes
SIDESLIP Posted by Alistair (Jasper) Maskelyne
The national airline of Papua New Guinea, first formed in 1973, did not commence true international services until the acquisition of Boeing 707 aircraft from Qantas in 1975. Apart from the pilots, the flight crew also included a flight engineer, and on some long overwater services, a flight navigator.
One flight engineer, whose name escapes me, made a significant contribution to high altitude flight by demonstrating that excess nuts from the crew lunches could be disposed of easily. He would extend the navigators periscope and hold the dish against the bottom of the tube. The unwanted nuts would then disappear into the troposphere, perhaps to become small shooting stars in the nighttime.
This man also had the distinction of owning his own Cessna 185, which he had re-constructed from two wrecked aircraft.
He put it to good use in that he often visited the owner of the Bensbach Lodge in the Western District of PNG, making sure that his flight was also useful to the lodge by taking such urgent spares and other airfreight as would fit into his Cessna. Our friend would make a social call in his Cessna, spend the evening in frivolity, and depart the following day.
One such flight was in progress in poor weather. Headed from Bensbach to Port Moresby, our mate was forced to climb to 13,000ft, to top the cloud. Even in PNG, it is cold up there, and he was dressed only in shorts and a T shirt. So he shivered and shivered with a splitting headache, relic of the past evening. Worse was to come. On the cruise he became aware of an urgent need to evacuate his bowels. No toilet on a small Cessna, but there was a plastic bucket at the aft end of the cabin. That would have to do. Problem: no auto pilot either. So, with great care he trimmed the aircraft nose down so as to compensate for the transfer of his weight as he moved back to get the bucket, located behind a diesel engine he was carrying to Moresby for repairs. First attempt, no good. Second attempt, almost but not quite. Third time much nose down trim, race back, pick up bucket and hop back in seat. Down with the shorts and much relief. A few maps and notices to airmen sufficed to wipe himself, but then how to dispose of the evil contents of the bucket? Not for nothing was he a flight engineer and skilled in aerodynamics. He placed the aircraft into a steep side slip, managed to open his door, and tossed out the bucket. It all came back down the side of the aircraft and in his face!
When he landed at Port Moresby he ran for the shower, shouting at the ground crew "Klinim balus!"
The national airline of Papua New Guinea, first formed in 1973, did not commence true international services until the acquisition of Boeing 707 aircraft from Qantas in 1975. Apart from the pilots, the flight crew also included a flight engineer, and on some long overwater services, a flight navigator.
One flight engineer, whose name escapes me, made a significant contribution to high altitude flight by demonstrating that excess nuts from the crew lunches could be disposed of easily. He would extend the navigators periscope and hold the dish against the bottom of the tube. The unwanted nuts would then disappear into the troposphere, perhaps to become small shooting stars in the nighttime.
This man also had the distinction of owning his own Cessna 185, which he had re-constructed from two wrecked aircraft.
He put it to good use in that he often visited the owner of the Bensbach Lodge in the Western District of PNG, making sure that his flight was also useful to the lodge by taking such urgent spares and other airfreight as would fit into his Cessna. Our friend would make a social call in his Cessna, spend the evening in frivolity, and depart the following day.
One such flight was in progress in poor weather. Headed from Bensbach to Port Moresby, our mate was forced to climb to 13,000ft, to top the cloud. Even in PNG, it is cold up there, and he was dressed only in shorts and a T shirt. So he shivered and shivered with a splitting headache, relic of the past evening. Worse was to come. On the cruise he became aware of an urgent need to evacuate his bowels. No toilet on a small Cessna, but there was a plastic bucket at the aft end of the cabin. That would have to do. Problem: no auto pilot either. So, with great care he trimmed the aircraft nose down so as to compensate for the transfer of his weight as he moved back to get the bucket, located behind a diesel engine he was carrying to Moresby for repairs. First attempt, no good. Second attempt, almost but not quite. Third time much nose down trim, race back, pick up bucket and hop back in seat. Down with the shorts and much relief. A few maps and notices to airmen sufficed to wipe himself, but then how to dispose of the evil contents of the bucket? Not for nothing was he a flight engineer and skilled in aerodynamics. He placed the aircraft into a steep side slip, managed to open his door, and tossed out the bucket. It all came back down the side of the aircraft and in his face!
When he landed at Port Moresby he ran for the shower, shouting at the ground crew "Klinim balus!"
