Will this update from the air????

30 minute flight instead of 5 hours hard driving.

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Supporting PNG communities

Coffee grown in the highlands of Papua New Guinea is some of the best around. However, for many growers, getting the coffee processed is nearly impossible due to an accessibility and lack of roading infrastructure.

Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) is often the only outside contact for these isolated communities. They provide aerial transport of people and produce, thus helping Papua New Guinea’s developing economy.

LatitudeSix – coffeeforcommunities returns 10% of sales of it’s coffee, back to the growers in Papua New Guinea. This is over and above the price the growers initially get for selling their beans. The projects that LatitudeSix help fund, aid further development of the communities that grow coffee crops.

The two incidents are not connected.

The MAF Twin Otter piloted by Richard Marples and Greg Falland was on its final approach to Aiyura airstrip near the community of Ukarumpa at 9.30am on Wednesday August 12 when a bullet fired from a nearby hillside pierced the rear of the cabin and ejected through the roof.

Operations Manager Geoff Calder in the seat where a cabin attendant would have been located. Note steel tracer indicating the trajectory of the bullet.

Neither pilot was aware of the incident at the time and nobody on board was injured. The pilots later reported they heard a sound like a cargo strap breaking and slapping a coffee bag. This could have been the sound of the bullet passing through the cabin and is consistent with reports of tribal violence taking place at the time. There had also been reports of intermittent gunfire all day at Aiyura.

The bullet hole was found on a subsequent walk-around inspection as the hole is not immediately visible from normal ground perspective.

The bullet entered the rear cabin door and exited through the roof narrowly missing fuel cells, the aircraft’s battery and the elevator trim control cables. Had it hit any of those, the consequences could have been catastrophic.

Damage to the exterior skin of the aircraft has been repaired and it has been released back into service.

There was no cabin attendant on board at the time. If there had been and he was sitting upright, it would have missed his nose by five centimetres. If he was leaning forward or looking out of the window, he could have been killed.

MAF PNG Program Manager, Patrick Williams, said he believed the shot was fired from a hill at the end of Aiyura runway, at Ukarumpa, SIL’s headquarters.

“We believe it was immediately before some houses on the hill were set alight and 15 houses were burnt to the ground,” he added.

“We therefore believe that it was a random act of violence rather than (an attack) directed against MAF.

The external bullet hole

“Aiyura airstrip was closed immediately, and we followed SIL’s advice about re-opening it. Limited SIL operations to return (their) pilots and family members to Aiyura were resumed over the next two days.”

A report was made at the time of the incident to the Kainantu police station. It is believed but not confirmed that rascals broke into the police station that morning and stole all the police guns. These may have been used in local gun violence around Ukarumpa and possibly in the incident involving the MAF aircraft.

“I thank the Lord for his protection in this incident, that no-one was injured and the aircraft sustained only superficial damage,” said Mr Williams.

“We consider it a random act of violence at a time of tribal fighting and that MAF was not specifically targeted.”

Via www.maf.org.au

GA8 Turbo with pilot Nick Swalm in PNG

The brand new 8-seat aircraft left Mareeba bound for PNG on April 21 following a ferry flight up from Victoria. MAF took delivery of the plane in February but the actual handover was delayed by certification approvals and modifications.

By all outward appearances, the turbo-charged (TC) Airvan is identical to its normally aspirated cousins, 11 of which are currently operating with MAF in the PNG lowlands, Arnhem Land, Cambodia and East Timor.

The big – or little – difference only becomes apparent when the engine cowling is removed to reveal the addition of a TC converter about the size of a 2-litre soft drink bottle tucked away neatly and almost out of sight. But big things can often be achieved by small objects. That small device will allow PNG pilots to soar with ease over mountain ranges and greatly reduce flight times between highlands airstrips. It will give them additional power for rapid climbing through breaks in the cloud.

Aviation Resources Manager, Stephen Charlesworth, explains that it is all about the ability of the TC Airvan to convert or compress – via the turbo-charger – the thinner air taken into the engine at altitude.  ”To date, (non-TC) Airvans have been particularly useful in the lowlands of PNG, Indonesia, Cambodia and East Timor where MAF has a number of Airvans operating,” he said.

GA8 Turbo Airvan in flight, PNG Highlands

“But they have been less successful in the PNG highlands. As you go higher, air pressure reduces and the air is less dense. Therefore, the higher the altitude, the less power becomes available to a normally aspirated aircraft. There is less energy for the engine to burn. ”The turbo-charger or compressor overcomes that problem by compressing the air prior to it entering the engine enabling more power for greater rates of climb. As a result, the aircraft is better able to move from valley to valley in the PNG highlands.”

Mr Charlesworth said the new Airvan would readily climb to heights of 10,000 feet and above, had a greater load-carrying capacity than the Cessna 206 and required less maintenance. The Airvan GA8-TC 320 is powered by a Lycoming turbo-charged fuel injection engine turning a Hartzell three-blade propeller.

Worldwide, 135 of the Victorian-manufactured Airvans are flying in 32 countries. MAF has the second largest fleet of Airvans after the USAF Civil Air Patrol.

MAF Australia – www.maf.org.au