Telstra - Too Big To Be Bothered About Their Customers

Hey Telstra, have you got your ears on for this?

Every month you send me a bill by email.  Fine, so far so good.  Each month you tell me how to register for Direct Debit.... FAIL... FAIL... FAIL!  For your edification, I have been registered for DD for almost 2 years and it shows up that way every time I log into my account, so why - oh why - can't your brainiacs work out how the check that before sending an email that makes you look so bloody incompetent?

Do you really want me to switch to another provider?  It's not as it you're the only one in the market any more!

And then you have the complete dumbarse idiocity to provide a link in the email that conveys the bill, to direct me to your goddamned useless dumbarse FAQs!  There is no link whatever, that allows me to raise this issue directly with you, but thank you for providing a link to a Forum, where I can ask the question - but only after I damned well bloody register for it!  What the fuck are you thinking?  You already KNOW who I am when I sign into my account!

But, okay, keep pissing your customers off and you'll find that we all vote with our feet.

Thanks for nothing, you bunch of twats.

HD TV!

I don't know how good it is everywhere else in Australia, or around the world, but in my corner of regional Australia it SUCKS!  I reckon we've been sold a bill of goods with this deal.  Whose idea was it anyway and who benefits?  Why do we have to spend money to replace a perfectly good analogue TV, which has far fewer problems with signal reception in rain – or strong wind – than this finnicky digital signal.

Whose Idea Was It Anyway?

It no longer really matters about who had this "brilliant" idea, though I’d like to be the one to tie them over the nearest convenient nest of bull ants!  Sadly, the Feral Government of Australia picked up the idea and ran with it – in much the same way as they’ve handled everything else to date.  Yes, the same government that already has a failure record that is so close to 100% on everything done to date that they’re continually spoken of in terms of outright incompetence.  The same government that has, just now, brought in that big, new carbon tax for which there was no mandate from the electorate.

The same government that's hell-bent on delivering the so-called NBN – National Broadband Network.  Can we really trust them to ever get anything right that actually gives John Citizen something needed and useful?  And, importantly, deliver it without leaving him to pick up the bill?

Who Benefits?

This one seems to be easy to answer.  The beneficiaries are free-to-air TV networks because they can add more TV channels, loaded with every tired old (i.e. up to 30+ years ago) soapie or sitcom that’s ever been seen before.  And why would they want to serve up all that out-dated rubbish?  The cynic in me believes it allows them more scope for advertising to increase their profits for next to no cost.

It seems that everyone wants OUR money without having to work for it.  Perhaps they’ve been inspired by the profits made by our banks?  At the same time, the old shows that shamelessly pollute our homes and lives are dumbing us down.  Need evidence of this?  Just sit through any of aforementioned soapies or sitcoms and try to find any relationship between them and the world of the 21^st century.

For those who’ve seen the movie "Idiocracy", you'll instantly recognise how true that scenario is likely to be!  For those who haven't seen it yet, find it, watch it and be appalled to realise that you’re looking at the future – for you AND, more especially, the generations to come.  We are being taken for a ride and dumbed-down all at the same time, so we’re actually paying to be screwed over without even the afterglow of satisfaction from such an event.

What Was Wrong With The Analogue Signal?

Okay, no system is perfect and there were, occasionally, issues with reception of the analogue signal – but usually only in the sort of weather where one would turn off electrical appliances anyway.  It might be argued, I suppose, that the Digital Signal isn't perfect either, but that would be the greatest understatement in the history of understatements!

Is the picture really all that much better than the analogue signal?  In my experience, the answer is a loud and resounding NO!  At present, I have 2 TVs – one digital HD and the other analogue.  The latter is a portable set in my bedroom, with its own "bunny ears" antenna.  The signal isn't always terrific, due to the indoor aerial, but it's watchable in all but extreme weather conditions.

I often have both TVs tuned to the same TV network at the same time.  If I stand between the 2 sets, I clearly hear the sound coming through at different times.  The sound always comes through first on the portable set, and takes between 4 and 5 seconds to come through on the HD TV.  This is unsynchronised stereo, otherwise heard as a jumble of sounds that don't even vaguely resemble the English language.

I'm informed that this difference occurs because of all the extra information that is transmitted with the digital signal.  On that basis, I have to ask – what is the benefit of this extra information and why do I need it?  How come I need it now when, for all the years in which I’ve experienced analogue TV, I’ve neither had it nor needed it.  If this extra information is furnished on the basis of “the public’s right to know”, then I have a right to know why I need it.

My message to the bright spark who dreamed up this poor excuse for a system is – if it isn't broken, it doesn't need to be fixed.

Oh yes, and I hear that future "enhancements" are to be made to the digital experience and that these are likely to require John Citizen to fork out even more money, in order to keep pace with the technology.  If so, is this yet another source of advantage for someone, like retailers who are currently doing it tough or, at least, not yet making the same profits as banks?

If the digital signal is so much better for folks in the capital cities, I'm happy for them – let them pay for this rubbish!  In my corner of regional Australia, it isn't delivering anything better than we have had to date, yet we still have to cough up money, perhaps on a continuing basis, for a system that is simply unreliable and, in my view, completely unnecessary.

Yet another reason to trust the Feral Government of Australia.

Sack Alan Joyce AND The Qantas Board!

What follows hereunder is the transcript of an address to National Parliament by Independent MP Nick Xenophon, which has been widely reported in major Australian newspapers.  Anyone who chooses to read this transcript will undoubtedly be as alarmed as I was - this message needs to go viral so that everyone knows what the current management of Qantas is trying to do in gutting the airline for their own profit.  It certainly looks like Michael Douglas's character was right when he said "Greed is Good" because there's so many who seem to be into it.

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Senator XENOPHON (South Australia) (19:37): I rise to speak tonight on an issue that is close to the hearts of many Australians, and that is the future of our national carrier, Qantas. At 90, Qantas is the world's oldest continuously running airline. It is an iconic Australian company. Its story is woven into the story of Australia and Australians have long taken pride in the service and safety standards provided by our national carrier. Who didn't feel a little proud when Dustin Hoffman uttered the immortal line in Rain Man, 'Qantas never crashed'?

While it is true that Qantas never crashes, the sad reality is that Qantas is being deliberately trashed by management in the pursuit of short-term profits and at the expense of its workers and passengers. For a long time, Qantas management has been pushing the line that Qantas international is losing money and that Jetstar is profitable. Tonight, it is imperative to expose those claims for the misinformation they are. The reality is that Qantas has long been used to subsidise Jetstar in order to make Jetstar look profitable and Qantas look like a burden. In a moment, I will provide detailed allegations of cost-shifting that I have sourced from within the Qantas Group, and when you know the facts you quickly see a pattern. When there is a cost to be paid, Qantas pays it, and when there is a profit to be made, Jetstar makes it.

But first we need to ask ourselves: why? Why would management want Qantas to look unprofitable? Why would they want to hide the cost of a competing brand within their group, namely Jetstar, in amongst the costs faced by Qantas?

To understand that, you need to go back to the days when Qantas was being privatised. When Qantas was privatised the Qantas Sale Act 1992 imposed a number of conditions, which in turn created a number of problems for any management group that wanted to flog off parts of the business. Basically, Qantas has to maintain its principal place of operations here in Australia, but that does not stop management selling any subsidiaries, which brings us to Jetstar.

Qantas has systematically built up the low-cost carrier at the expense of the parent company. I have been provided with a significant number of examples where costs which should have been billed back to Jetstar have in fact been paid for by Qantas. These are practices that I believe Qantas and Jetstar management need to explain. For example, when Jetstar took over the Cairns-Darwin-Singapore route, replacing Qantas flights, a deal was struck that required Qantas to provide Jetstar with $6 million a year in revenue. Why? Why would one part of the business give up a profitable route like that and then be asked to pay for the privilege? Then there are other subsidies when it comes to freight. On every sector Jetstar operates an A330, Qantas pays $6,200 to $6,400 for freight space regardless of actual uplift. When you do the calculations, this turns out to be a small fortune. Based on 82 departures a week, that is nearly half-a-million dollars a week or $25½ million a year.

Then there are the arrangements within the airport gates. In Melbourne, for example, my information from inside the Qantas group is that Jetstar does not pay for any gates, but instead Qantas domestic is charged for the gates. My question for Qantas management is simple: are these arrangements replicated right around Australia and why is Qantas paying Jetstar's bills? Why does Qantas lease five check-in counters at Sydney Terminal 2, only to let Jetstar use one for free? It has been reported to me that there are other areas where Jetstar's costs magically become Qantas's costs. For example, Jetstar does not have a treasury department and has only one person in government affairs. I am told Qantas's legal department also does free work for Jetstar.

Then there is the area of disruption handling where flights are cancelled and people need to be rebooked. Here, insiders tell me, Qantas handles all re-bookings and the traffic is all one way. It is extremely rare for a Qantas passenger to be rebooked on a Jetstar flight, but Jetstar passengers are regularly rebooked onto Qantas flights. I am informed that Jetstar never pays Qantas for the cost of those rebooked passengers and yet Jetstar gets to keep the revenue from the original bookings. This, I am told, is worth millions of dollars every year. So Jetstar gets the profit while Qantas bears the costs of carriage. It has also been reported to me that when Qantas provides an aircraft to Jetstar to cover an unserviceable plane, Jetstar does not pay for the use of this plane.

Yet another example relates to the Qantas Club. Jetstar passengers can and do use the Qantas Club but Jetstar does not pay for the cost of any of this. So is Qantas really losing money? Or is it profitable but simply losing money on paper because it is carrying so many costs incurred by Jetstar? We have been told by Qantas management that the changes that will effectively gut Qantas are necessary because Qantas international is losing money but, given the inside information I have just detailed, I would argue those claims need to be reassessed.

Indeed, given these extensive allegations of hidden costs, it would be foolish to take management's word that Qantas international is losing money. So why would Qantas want to make it look like Qantas international is losing money? Remember the failed 2007 private equity bid by the Allco Finance Group. It was rejected by shareholders, and thank goodness it was, for I am told that what we are seeing now is effectively a strategy of private equity sell-off by stealth.

Here is how it works. You have to keep Qantas flying to avoid breaching the Qantas Sale Act but that does not stop you from moving assets out of Qantas and putting them into an airline that you own but that is not controlled by the Qantas Sale Act. Then you work the figures to make it appear as though the international arm of Qantas is losing money. You use this to justify the slashing of jobs, maintenance standards and employment of foreign crews and, ultimately, the creation of an entirely new airlines to be based in Asia and which will not be called Qantas. The end result? Technically Qantas would still exist but it would end up a shell of its former self and the Qantas Group would end up with all these subsidiaries it can base overseas using poorly paid foreign crews with engineering and safety standards that do not match Australian standards. In time, if the Qantas Group wants to make a buck, they can flog these subsidiaries off for a tidy profit. Qantas management could pay the National Boys Choir and the Australian Girls’ Choir to run to the desert and sing about still calling Australia home, but people would not buy it. It is not just about feeling good about our national carrier—in times of trouble our national carrier plays a key strategic role. In an international emergency, in a time of war, a national carrier is required to freight resources and people around the country and around the world. Qantas also operates Qantas Defence Services, which conducts work for the RAAF. If Qantas is allowed to wither, who will meet these strategic needs?

I pay tribute to the 35,000 employees of the Qantas Group. At the forefront of the fight against the strategy of Qantas management have been the Qantas pilots, to whom millions of Australians have literally entrusted their lives. The Australian and International Pilots Association sees Qantas management strategy as a race to the bottom when it comes to service and safety. On 8 November last year, QF32 experienced a serious malfunction with the explosion of an engine on an A380 aircraft. In the wrong hands, that plane could have crashed. But it did not, in large part because the Qantas flight crew had been trained to exemplary world-class standards and knew how to cope with such a terrifying reality. I am deeply concerned that what is being pursued may well cause training levels to fall and that as a result safety standards in the Qantas Group may fall as well. AIPA pilots and the licensed aircraft engineers are not fighting for themselves; they are fighting for the Australian public. That is why I am deeply concerned about any action Qantas management may be considering taking against pilots who speak out in the public interest.

A lot of claims have been made about the financial state of Qantas international but given the information I have presented tonight, which has come from within the Qantas Group, I believe these claims by management are crying out for further serious forensic investigation. Qantas should not be allowed to face death by a thousand cuts—job cuts, route cuts, quality cuts, engineering cuts, wage cuts. None of this is acceptable and it must all be resisted for the sake of the pilots, the crews, the passengers and ultimately the future of our national carrier.
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How much more sabotage can we permit of the tourism industry and the economy as a whole, from the anti-Australian terrorist tactics of Joyce and the Qantas Board?

A Cleverly Disguised Rant?

Australia's fortunes haven't exactly been soaring of late.  Although we convincingly beat New Zealand in the Trans Tasman Rugby League Test, the Wallabies went down by a truly appaling margin to the All Blacks in the Rugby (Union) World Cup and our cricket team hasn't done well in it's opening T-20 game against South Africa.  About the brightest spot for us,in fact, has been the well-deserved win by Casey Stoner in the 2011 MotoGP, which made him the world champion - a feat that matches the efforts of Aussie bike riders in years gone by.

So now we come to the true darkness that envelopes Australians now.  First, there's the HD TV scam - a rip-off of gigantic proportions that results in inferior TV reception for many people, including the author.  Of much more recent times though, there's that great big new tax that has just passed the final hurdle to become law at the start of the next financial year - the Carbon Tax.  These 2 events have one thing in common, they were both authored by a Federal Government that has been in power for 4 years and is already at least 3 years beyond its use-by date.


The Great HD TV Scam

The advent of HD TV has certainly led to a huge increase in the number of so-called "free-to-air" TV channels, most of which are mere offshoots of existing networks so competition has not actually increased.  The only thing that has really increased is the number of very old programs - sitcoms and dramas - some of which were quite dated when I was still a kid.  This has certainly not led to an increase in viewing enjoyment so it seems the only thing that has changed is that there are now more media vehicles for advertising.

What were we supposed to get out of this?  We were told that the signal quality would be better and would make a better viewing experience for all sorts of TV programs.  We were also told that HD provided more bandwidth for more TV channels and some of us might've expected this to mean better quality programs from a variety of new players who would compete witht he established networks.

What did we actually get?  Well, as already said, we got a wide range of resurrected programs from 20 and 30 years ago!  Do we really want to see these repeats in better quality vision?  If so, might we not have the right to expect that the better vision quality was actually achieved? There are many people I've spoken to who say that this has not been delivered, with many complaints about signal interference that causes loss of audio or loss of video, or both, or picture "freezing" and/or pixillation that renders each program unwatchable on far too many occasions.

It might work out better for folks in major capital cities but it doesn't seem to work that way for people in regional Australia who, yet again, have been forgotten in yet another ill-considered rush by an incompetent federal government that wants to be seen to be actually achieving something.  If this is the standard by which they want to be measured, they have failed yet again and, in the process, forced every Australian to pay out a lot of money to convert their viewing from analog to HD digital TV.

I can see many retailers who will have benefitted from this, at a time when people aren't spending money because of the generally uncertain financial times in which we find ourselves these days.  We might well have dodged a bullet with the Global Financial Crisis and might even be relatively well off in the event of the "double dip recession" that has been touted for a while now by some commentators.  Little wonder that people don't want to spend money if they don't have to - but it also seems to explain why HD TV was given such a big green light by our government.  It actually forced people to spend money that they didn't want to spend and who now have to revised their budgets and go without a few other things as a result.


A Short Note About The Ads

I'm given to understand that there are rules which say that TV stations can't make their ads more prominent than their programs.  But they do so anyway.  The volume used in programs is generally set lower than the volume of the ads, so that we get screamed at by the ads because we've had to increase the volume to hear the dialogue in the show we're watching.  How is this not against the law?

For the benefit of advertisers, their agents and the commercial TV stations, here's a tip.  When you put on an ad that really screams at us - like the Harvey Norman ads - people like me hit the mute button straight away and don't put the sound back on until the program starts again.  You have, therefore, lost everything you were trying to achieve with every other ad that followed the Harvey Norman type ad!

Whatever happened to the quiet, clever, funny ads that we all loved to watch, some 20 years ago?


The Carbon Tax

What a brainstorm this was!  Yet again, the feral government (pun intended) didn't think this through, much less did they have a mandate for it.  There are many in the community who are self-funded early retirees who will receive none of the compensation on offer from the government.  They access no federal services and so are outside of the loop for compensation.  These retirees carefully considered their budget before taking early retirement, so that they wouldn't be a burden on the government welfare system and now they get kicked in the teeth for trying to do the right thing.

None of them could ever have envisioned this ill-conceived, ill-considered tax in the financial planning for their retirement, as those plans had to be made years ago, when there was no such tax - but there was a promise by Julia Gillard that she would not introduce this measure.  So thanks once again to Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan for delivering us into evil rather than from it!  I'm sure that you're very proud of yourselves for kicking your fellow Australians - people who've worked harder in their lives than either of you are ever likely to know, much less comprehend.

Many people who know me also know that I've been a staunch Liberal voter my whole life.  They also know that I'm quite disenchanted by the idea of having Tony Abbott as our next Prime Minister because I don't think he has any more clues than the government that he will most certainly replace at the next election.  Despite my lack of trust in Abbott, I will vote for him - mainly because there's no alternative, but also because of his promise to repeal this useless tax that will do nothing for the world's environment until all the bigger polluters take up the same challenge.

At a time when finances are so tight and the economy is far from strong, it has been foolhardy in the extreme to intoruduce this measure.  The only thing it will do is further emasculate our industry, especially the all-important export industry that is essential to a balance of trade that encourages stable economies all over the world and especially with Australia's trading partners.

In absence of a mandate for this tax, the government should've put it to a referendum.  Of course, they didn't want to do that because the history of referendums in Australia has always been "no".  Thus, the hard-working Australian populace gets a tax foistered on them at a time when they really needed financial stability for their planning.  Thus, even more money needs to be spent from budgets that were never designed to afford such an additional forced impost.

The sooner this highly destructive and incompetent government is removed, the better, though the damage will already have been done.  I can but wonder whether the National Broadband Network will be any better than another massive white elephant that sucks even more of our hard-earned money from us, without our consent.

So Long and Farewell to my Favourite Japanese Restaurant - Yama

As mentioned in my previous blog, the Yama restaurant closed after a very big night on 29 June, 2008.  It was a very BIG final night for all the regulars who've enjoyed the cuisine, the booze, the friendly insults and occasional service delays at the restaurant owned by my good friend Masami Kawano, aka Sammy-San.

The theme for the night was well demonstrated by Sammy-San, right from the outset!

Sammy-San wasn't fooling anyone.  That cup, normally used for Japanese Tea was, on this occasions, filled with Sake.

The official photographer for the night was Mayo-San, the son of Mayo who was supported for this special occasion by Sammy's wife, Masai-San.  I couldn't believe how Mayo had grown in all the years that I was a regular at the Yama - while neither Sammy nor Masai had aged at all!

But this night was also about the staff and the regular customers - one of each is seen here.

Another of the regulars was Dan, who never failed to turn up with at least 2 hotties!  Whoever it was who said that Koreans wouldn't enjoy Japanese cuisine never met Dan and his very special friends!

Some of the many regulars who turned up for this last opportunity to enjoy the food, the booze and the friendship associated with the many years that the Yama was open.

Wine, women and now song! Yes, the well-known Johnno was there with his new Blues Band to sing such favourites as "Turning Japanese".

On 12 July, 2008, the regulars got together to say "thank you" to Sammy, Masai and Mayo for all the years that they gave to us.  The venue was the home of one of the regulars, just around the corner from The Esplanade, Cairns.

Yes, of course there was food there - Sammy provided all the Sushi and Sashimi, while the regulars provided the cake and utensils.

Oh yes, the regulars also provided the booze... all sorts of booze from soft drinks to Sake to beer to champers!  The Esky had to be kept refilled on a regular basis, from several fridges.

Oh yes, and there was also an almost traditional Aussie barbecue that was very popular with everyone.

Dan excelled himself on this night by bringing not 2, but 3 of his disciples.

Finally, Sammy-San was encouraged to undertake the ceremony of cutting the cake.  Maybe it should've been rice cake, but we couldn't arrange that on short notice.

Despite the obvious short-coming of it not being rice cake, Masai was the first to tuck in.

After all was said and done, we were pleased to see that our work was done on this night!

Thank you for all the greatly enjoyable memories Sammy-San! 度も有賀とございます正巳さん！

How To Make A Paradise Roll

And now for something completely different!

Around about 11 or so years ago, while at my favourite Japanese restaurant in Cairns, the Yama, there was one night when trade was slow.  This coincided with me wanting to try something that was just a bit different to my normal fare, but it was one of those times when nothing on the menu overly appealed to me.  Chef Sammy-San was always known to experiment with different things and different ways of making new things for the menu and they were mostly excellent but, on this night, he wasn't experimenting.

I found my own thoughts beginning to drift to an experiment of my own, to create a new Sushi roll that just might find a niche market at the restaurant.  While sipping Sake and slowly devouring a bowl of Edamame, my thoughts began to crystallize when I thought about some of the things that Sammy-San had already invented.

Little by little the thoughts came together.  Take some fresh Salmon, add crispy grilled Salmon skin and some Avocado and place inside a sushi roll.  But, no, not just an ordinary sushi roll, oh no, this one had to be thick and it had to be inside out - and, yes, for a finishing touch, the fresh and grilled ingredients would be wrapped inside a sheet of egg.

So this is what transpired on that night.  Start by taking a strip of freshly cut Salmon skin and salt quite liberally :-

 

While waiting for the Salmon skin to be grilled nice and crispy, take a sheet of egg from the stock, like so :-

Next, take a sheet of Nori and liberally add Sushi rice, spread as evenly as possible over the full length and width of the sheet, like so :-

Now take the sheet of egg and place on a rolling mat, then invert the rice and Nori onto the egg, like so :-

It is then necessary to await completion of the grilling of the Salmon skin - a crispy and tasty piece of which is then added, together with a slice or 2 of Avocado, like so :-

Now add some generous cuts of fresh Salmon and start rolling, like so :-

Once firmly rolled, cut in half using a very sharp knife, then cut each half into generous portions, like so :-

Arrange tastefully and artfully on a nice wooden Sushi dish, garnish with colourful green weeds and serve with Wasabi and Pickled Ginger.

If you're as lucky as I was on that night, you'll even get the rest of the crispy Salmon skin to crunch on :-

And there you have a tasty, substantial and quite different type of Sushi roll.  It is also served with Soy Sauce, though the flavour doesn't do the roll any favours.  You might also find, as I did, that Wasabi isn't needed either as it doesn't help the delicate flavour of the meal.  Some Ginger goes very nicely with it though.

It became instantly popular with most of the regular customers and, for a long time, it featured on the "specials" board.  It took a very long time to be incorporated into the menu because Sammy-San felt that the preparation time, especially long because of the need to grill the Salmon skin, might not be popular with customers who simply wanted to eat quickly.

Despite this, there were many orders for it over all the ensuing years until the Yama closed, on 29 June, 2008.  During that time, the only occasions when ordering Paradise Roll was actively discouraged was when it was part of a "take-away" order.  This was because the Salmon skin could lose its crispness during a lengthy drive back home before being eaten.

Sammy-San is still around and often encounters many of his regular customers who will always have something nice to say about the Paradise Roll.  This was my one and only contribution to Japanese cuisine and my only claim to real fame - if I'd been on a commission for the sales that ensued, I'd also have been very wealthy indeed.

Other Memories of Papua New Guinea

Welcome to another rambling effort to convey memories of PNG, some of which don’t specifically relate to flying around the country.  As with my previous efforts, most of the photos herein originate in the years “BC” (Before Cyberspace) so were captured using real film (either in the traditional glossy print or slide format) in real cameras.  In those days, one had to await the processing to find out whether the results were good, bad or anywhere in between.

Of course, to suit these more modern times of electronic format, they all had to be scanned into digital form and, as that happened some years after the recorded events, photo quality suffered a bit and some images may not be especially sharp.

Below is a photo of me, on the first day of being issued with the official uniform of the Civil Aviation Authority of PNG.  Within a year, it was already out of date because the organisation had changed its name to Civil Aviation Safety Authority of PNG.

Memories Around Port Moresby

The first car I had in PNG was this Mazda 323.  It was a company car that was allocated to me due to my status as the Chief Flying Instructor.  It was a good, reliable car, which was all it needed to be.

Early in 1984, I took an uninvited, personally guided tour of the Haus Tambaran – the National Parliament building of PNG, in Waigani.

Back in 1984, the Sea Park was still in operation at Ela Beach and the show was about as good as anywhere else in the world.  It didn’t have the space to accommodate the larger creatures, such as Killer Whales, but they did very well with what they had.  It’s a shame that it no longer exists.

Koki Village, Koki Market and a small part of Badili, around 2 kilometres from downtown Port Moresby.  The Sir Hubert Murray Highway has, in more recent times, been extensively re-arranged here and, for once, the change was actually an improvement to handle increased traffic flow.  Back in 1984 though, there wasn’t anything like the amount of traffic on the roads – though one still had to be watchful of the unpredictable movements of the many PMVs (small buses), so at least that aspect hasn’t changed.

This is Porebada village, along the coast to the northwest of Port Moresby.

This is how the downtown area of Port Moresby looked in 1984, before the re-arrangement of the wharves and the relocation of the Royal Papua Yacht Club.  I liked the old “yachtie” very much and was a member for all my early years in the country.  Club membership was just another perk of the job, which made it even nicer.

Periodically, the DC-3 at Air Niugini Haus had to “land” to be cleaned and repainted.

This was the scene at Jacksons Airport on the occasion of the funeral for prominent politician, Sir Iambakey Okuk.  It had been feared that, on this day when his body was to be transported back to Kundiawa, there might be rioting so Police and Defence Force personnel were everywhere and many people were given the day off work.  In the event, however, it was quiet and orderly.  In this photo, taken from the old Control Tower, the Dash-7 that carried his body is taxying out and people are beginning to disperse.

This is a scene from the first (and, so far, only) Pans Ops Instrument Procedure Design course to be run in PNG.  It was held at the University of PNG and run by procedure design staff from AirServices Australia, in 2002.

Working out radar vectors in the old “Radar Shack”, using the point-and-click technique.

This is an Air Niugini publicity photo that appeared on postcards.  It depicts the old “paddle steamer”, aka Dash-7.

This is yet another Air Niugini publicity photo that appeared on postcards for a while.  Yes, back in 1984, the airline operated 2 B-707 aircraft and had services to Honolulu, among other places.

Memories Around the Country

In the village at Woitape in the Goilala District of Central Province.

The Children’s Ward of the hospital at Fane Catholic Mission, Goilala District, Central Province.

Setting up the DGPS in advance of a flight check at Kerema – well, I did say this blog wasn’t specifically about flying, didn’t I?

A street scene in downtown Goroka – the home for major Third-Level airline, Talair.

At the Flight Deck Bar of the Bird of Paradise Hotel, Goroka, Eastern Highlands Province.

On a beach near Guasopa Village on Woodlark Island, Milne Bay Province.  The white sandy beach and turquiose water seemed to go on forever.

Memories of World War 2 in Paradise

Wreckage of Japanese aircraft adjacent to the airstrip at Gasmata, West New Britain Province.

The remains of a B-24 at the former US Army airfield at Dobuduru, near Popondetta, Oro Province.

The remains of a B-25 at Girua Airport, Popondetta, Oro Province, forms the backdrop to 3 people who were there on a completely different mission.  Obrad Puskarica of Airways New Zealand, John Regan and yours truly of CAA PNG.

 At the Coastwatchers Reserve, Rabaul, East New Britain Province, some years prior to the dual volcanic eruptions.

Another reminder of the war fought in Paradise is this Japanese anti-aircraft gun, which is preserved at Coastwatchers Reserve.  At one time, there was even a Japanese Zero here but it has long since disappeared, unfortunately.

The remains of a Japanese “Betty” bomber near the old Rabaul aerodrome.

 The remains of a Japanese Zero, or similar, at the small war museum at Kokopo, around the other side of the bay from Rabaul.

 My brother, Alan, inspects this example of a Japanese tank at the war museum at Kokopo.  He remarked that he’d had trouble fitting inside, let alone with 2 other crew members!

Other Distinct Memories

This is the ferry wharf for Arovo Island Resort.  It is the only connection with the outside world, with ferry trips running to and from Kieta on Bougainville Island.  The events of 1989, which shattered the economy of Bougainville by closing the Bougainville Copper Mine, also marked the end of this once truly fabulous resort.

During the ferry trip back from Arovo Island to Kieta, after a great overnight stop, I spotted the rusting remains of a Taiwanese fishing boat, hard aground on the sparkling white sand beach that surrounded the island.

Norm Sellen was a VIP passenger on P2-DCA (Beech C-90) for the flight from Misima to Port Moresby in June, 2001.  He had been found near Tagula, Sudest Island, Milne Bay Province by the PNGDF, the day after he was forced to ditch his Twin Commanche in very bad weather.  The PNGDF Arava had to refuel at Misima so he was transferred to my aircraft for a jubilant return to Port Moresby – and not a few drinks thereafter!

On 8 April, 1988, I commissioned the newly-installed AT-VASIS at each end of the runway at Vanimo.  The job was finished bare minutes before the inaugural Air Niugini F-28 service arrived.  I think the Captain might’ve been Grainger Narara but, in any event, in seeking his views on the upgrading of the aerodrome, I phrased the question rather poorly.  “How did you find the strip, Captain?”  He replied “I simply taken off from RWY 28 at Wewak and kept going… it was easy”.  Yeah mate, thanks for that…

This is the PNG border checkpoint at Wutung, on the road from Vanimo, to Jayapura.  On this particular day, the checkpoint was open so it was possible to get a stamp in the passport.

After negotiating a “no man’s land” from the PNG border checkpoint, one arrives at the Indonesian border.  The checkpoint is the building in the background and there is always someone on duty to check that you have a departure stamp from PNG in your passport.  If you don’t have that stamp, they’ll either send you back to get it, or charge a “fee” for the trespass.

24 October, 2002, was the date of Air Niugini’s inaugural Dash-8 service to Talasea, West New Britain Province.  It was a big affair and everyone was there to witness it.

Representatives of the Provincial Government were among the official welcoming group, as were children who presented welcoming gifts to the arriving passengers.

The event also brought out some Huli dancers for a sing-sing to mark the occasion.  I thought that was a tad strange because the Huli people come from the Southern Highlands Province of mainland PNG.  Perhaps there were no local dancers available?

I wish that there could’ve been more memories to share but the sad fact is that many of the photos I took, using real film either turned out poorly or have faded too much over time to be of any value in reproducing.  The advent of digital cameras has killed off an entire industry that was involved in the processing of film, slides and movies but at least you know right away whether or not the photo is any good.