What do building materials, coffee and a saw mill have in common?
One of the most important features of the Twin Otter is the ability to carry heavy loads, which allows for a wide variety of support to remote communities. In November, the MFU Twin Otter, captained by veteran PNG pilot Michael Duncalfe and First-Officer-in-training Judith DuPuis, flew a multitude of community support flights including transporting a full plane of building materials, a portable sawmill, and coffee to three communities in the Southern Highlands.
Coffee – Economic Support
In the Highlands, coffee is one of the main sources of income for remote communities, but only if they can get the fresh coffee beans to buyers in a city. It’s crucial, and for many communities like Dusin, MAF provides the only option: flying. On the 9th of November, Michael and Judith flew six passengers and a load of food cargo to Dusin, a small community on a hill surrounded by mountains. It was the second flight of the day and clouds had begun to drift down the mountain, completely blocking a visual of the airstrip. As the plane circled twice and Michael prepared to abort a landing, the clouds cleared. The community waited, ready with a stack of about 26 weighed and marked coffee bags. Village men worked quickly to unload the plane and load up the 40 to 50 kilo bags of coffee while a crowd watched from behind a wood and wire fence. It’s a routine flight for MAF, yet vitally important to the community.
Sawmill – Development Support
On 14th November, the same team flew a fully loaded plane to Tekin, a community tucked up against a mountain in a long valley with spectacular views. The cargo included a portable sawmill used to cut and plane wood for building. Because there are no roads, all building materials would need to be flown in. With a sawmill, however, it’s possible to produce at least some of the materials locally.
“People in remote communities are extraordinarily good at building their houses out of traditional ‘bush’ materials, a pole framework, woven cane walls and grass or coarse leaf roof,” Michael explains. “The houses are warm but deteriorate quickly in the wet climate. It’s no surprise that houses made of more permanent materials are appreciated, but in a remote community, where do you get them from? Sometimes church agencies or even entrepreneurial individuals purchase portable sawmills to mill timber from the surrounding forests.
The sawmill is partially disassembled for the flight, but even so, getting the main frame off the plane at Tekin is tricky. One of the challenges for Michael Duncalfe is loading and unloading the newly refurbished Twin Otter without damaging it.
“The sawmills are bulky and the frame with the engine is very heavy, taking four strong men (or more) to lift it in and out of the aircraft. The timber is held on a frame that’s 6 metres long, so transporting one of these machines requires a Twin Otter. Although we tend to think of the sawmill remaining close to the airstrip that we fly it to, that isn’t always the case. On some occasions the parts are carried for hours over rough terrain to the site where it is finally going to be used, and the fuel and oil necessary to operate it also have to be taken along with it.”
Building Materials – School Support
MAF traffic officers loaded up 1.5 tonnes of plywood and glass louvers in Mt Hagen on 10th November for Wopasali Primary School, located at 2,000 feet in the Erave River gorge, a hot and humid area, even though surrounded by mountains.
Simon Manada, a teacher and administrator at the school accompanied the flight. “Wopasali Primary School is a remote school that was established in the 1980s, and is still existing,” he explains. “MAF is taking these materials to the school for us to build a new double classroom. MAF often goes to Wopasali and brings people back and forth plus the materials. There’s no option for us to take the materials by road because it’s in a remote area. So therefore, the only access we have is taking the materials by plane, which is MAF alone.”
Simon Manada, a teacher and administrator at the Wopasali Primary School.
Despite a Few Frustrations
These cargo flights are not without frustrations: unloading and loading 1.5 tonnes of cargo in uncomfortable weather with a pulled back-muscle and people crowding around the plane; villagers at remote airstrips trying to over-load the cargo lockers on return flights without weighing; turn-around times that take twice as long as they should on already busy days. But at the end of the day, Michael knows the value of these flights to the communities MAF serves. “I must remember, children in that community will benefit from a new classroom!”
