Landing a Kodiak on a Mountain Grass Runway

[MissionaryBushPilot]

[mkennard]

Do you have to worry about downdrafts flying through those valleys?

[MissionaryBushPilot]

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.

[onetrack]

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?

[Old Koreelah]

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?

That's worth a thread all to itself, OT. Among the thousands of books, documentaries and movies about WWII, how many tell the story about how airstrips, ports, railways and roads were built?

 

The only museum devoted to this that I've seen is in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. It commemorates the building of the Alaska Highway during the war and has lots of ancient dozers, trucks and other machinery.

[Flightrite]

Sure is risky flying, you have some big gonads??

[MissionaryBushPilot]

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

[Old Koreelah]

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

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.

[MissionaryBushPilot]

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