Here’s another view of Daup airstrip. I’ve taken this photo from the right hand seat, therefore I must’ve been the passenger and therefore it must’ve been one of my very first flights here while I was being “endorsed” for this airstrip. The approach is higher than normal, so either we were on final approach from some distance away or we were overflying the airstrip so I could get a feel for the land – and landing.
.
The runway is visible just above the cockpit instrument panel! Notice the slope of the ground at the start of the runway. Behind that is a more or less level stretch of gravel. The slope at the start of the runway is quite steep, and you MUST land UP this slope, or you won’t be able to pull up in the 457 metres of runway!

This runway is made much, much more interesting when the winds are from the north west at 10 knots or greater. What happens is that this wind blows over a short, semi-conical volcanic offshoot that’s to the left of this picture, some 300 feet high. Half of this “mini-volcano” (I have no idea what the vulcanologist’s term is!) has collapsed, leaving a very severely shaped half cone that turns a northwesterly into one of the most turbulent and violent downrotor systems I’ve ever experienced, and make the approach that we’re currently flying so dangerous that the opposition airline refused to fly here! This phenomenon is noted in the airstrip notes published by the PNG aviation authority … and you ignore it at your peril.

Having forgotten about it once, on the approach to landing, everything was fine, until I descended into the turbulence. The windsock blew from left to right and from vertically UPWARDS to vertically DOWNWARDS in the time you’re reading these very words. I was very quickly reminded of the obscure entry in the airstrip notes, and I had some very worrying moments as I tried to outclimb the wind rotors, because my left wing was being forced down and I couldn’t lift the bloody thing up to correct things! Worse, I couldn’t climb, either, the wind was pushing me towards the ground! Luckily, I had no passengers on board and after a moment I managed to fly out of this turbulent area. I never forgot my lesson.
.
One of my work colleagues – g’day Matt! ;D – decided I was a wimp and declared that he’d be flying there on the next trip, after I warned him about forgetting about these rotors. He also wanted to impress someone else’s girlfriend. Everyone on board screamed and the pilot himself ended up suddenly and inexplicably feeling sick for the rest of the day! I would’ve hated to have tried to escape the rotors with a fully loaded plane, because I barely made it out with only myself on board. I laughed when my boss told me about this pilot’s backdown on his bravado! This is one place you don’t wanna f_ around with! (Actually, there are a LOT of places like that in PNG!!) :D