PNG Flight over the Finisterre Range

[MM]

PNG Flight over the Finisterre Range  
For January 29, 2025
Michael MacKuen

Today we visit the high country of the Finisterre Range on the north side of the Markham Valley. The Finisterre is a particularly steep and rugged set of mountains. We shall enjoy spectacular views of the peaks, ravines, ridges, valleys and the surrounding ocean. And on the way we shall enjoy handling a few airmanship challenges.


Landing at Nankina airstrip “on top of the world”

We begin with an early morning departure from Aiyura Airport [AYAY, AYU] located near Ukarump village. This is the location of the Aiyura National High School, the Aiyura Agricultural Research Station, the missionary Summer Institute of Linguistics, a base for JAARS aviation and an aircraft engineering and maintenance school. A busy place.

We climb out and cross over the Markham Valley below to the rugged and heavily-forested mountains of the Huon Peninsula. The tropical rainforests host six endemic species, including the famous, distinctive and endangered Matschie’s tree-kangaroo. Our first stop is Nahu [AYNH], nestled on the shoulder of a mountain in the notoriously jagged Finisterre Range. Then a circling climb over the main ridgeline, passing over waypoint [10800], to then initiate a quick descent on the other side. Our landing is at Guhu [AYGH] which is located high on the side of a small deep basin on the north side of the mountains.

We continue on the north face of the Finisterre Range to ridgetop Nankina [AYNA]. A recent visiting pilot Brent Fox reports, “The terrain drops off steeply in all directions making you feel like you are on top of the world. It’s one of those places where, after landing and the adrenaline rush subsides, I look down the runway and think, ‘What a unique place to land an airplane!’” This is also one of the Missionary Bush Pilot favorite strips. Years ago, Nankina was one of the first “aviation-sustained” areas where the local villagers developed commercial coffee growing operations and earned important income from sales in the urban markets. These success stories of local initiative and connections to the broader economy were once thought to be a way forward for rural PNG. Sadly, these prospects have faded as locally-operated commercial aviation has stagnated. Further, gang activity has recently affected the area but, apparently, the situation has been settled. Next, we take a very short hop to stop at a beautifully situated village Bambui [BCP]. Compared to the more important and more famous Nankina, this is a more dangerous strip with a higher altitude and shorter runway with steep falls on all sides. Then a long descent and a turn into a rising valley for the grand entrance to Tazon [TAZO], on a cliff sited against a high rising backdrop that makes for a visually impressive approach. This is a fair-sized village with a primary school.

We climb, and climb, up through the massive canyon to Isan [AYIS] with its 1031ft runway at 7000ft. And then across the chasm to Tep Tep [AYTP] in a box canyon with no go-around. We depart and climb again over the main Finisterre ridgeline at waypoint [9700], and then curl around the mountainside to land at Gorgiok [GORG]. This spot provides a view of the valley and the Sarawaged Range in the distance. Then a short hop down to Dinangat [AYDN] which has been long-served by Missionary aviation and has also developed a flourishing coffee business. Kodiak visits are a regular event. The approach into a box canyon onto a descending and then ascending strip will reward careful flying. (You might like the aviation detail in “Missionary Bush Pilot” Ryan Farran’s recent visit to Dinangat. Stay for a quick look at the locale.)

Turning east, we fly up onto Bunguwat [AYUT] which provides arriving pilots with a stunning vista of steep mountains and deep blue sea. Next, a pair of strips nestled in a beautiful valley. The first Sapmanga [AYSP] is a typical uphill runway – though partly hidden in the forest. But the second Yawan [AYYW] requires a high circling approach from across the steep valley onto the side of a second hill. Pilot Josh Eicholtz says: “Yawan is still my favorite airstrip in PNG. A challenging approach into a canyon with a spectacular waterfall view to enjoy after you land and turn around at the top!” Yawan hosts a secondary school. And interestingly, the villagers have created a 100,000 acre forest reservation to help preserve the Matchie’s tree-kangaroo. The local Tree Kangaroo Conservation Project is partially funded by the Seattle Woodland Park Zoo’s promotion of the area’s local coffee. (See the description here and video here and a very much longer video here.)

We proceed further east, edging our way around higher elevation on the shoulders of Mount Sarawaget to descend into a spectacular valley to circle and land at Yalumet [AYYE]. (The ridges and high trees obscure the strip and make for an interesting approach.) Finally, we fly down the Timbe Valley whose exit provides a grand view of the Vitiaz Strait and volcanic Long Island in the distance. We descend along the coastline to land at the district capital Wasu [AYWS]. 

Documentation
The flightplans can be found here. These are NOT designed for “set and fly the magenta” aviation. In addition, there is a short list of the airfields with the preferred runways, nominal altitudes, and brief notes.

Aircraft
Today’s schedule includes a number of high altitude village airstrips. You will probably want a STOL aircraft capable of operating at small elevated fields. Popular alternatives include the Pilatus PC‑6 Porter, Daher Kodiak, the Cessna 208 Caravan, the PAC P-750 XSTOL and the DHC-6 Twin Otter. You can surely fly this route with any short-field capable aircraft (say the RV-14) as long as it can handle the altitudes. (BN Islanders have been used in this area, but their normally-aspirated engines are not ideal for today’s mountaintop locations. This flight is designed for small aircraft on small strips. That said, the DHC-4 Caribou should mostly work here although some airfields may be a bit small for multiple instances of the big fellow.) I shall fly the Blackbird (Milviz) PC-6 ported-over from MSFS2020. (Not completely functional, but will give it a try. The default 2024 PC-6, at least the glass cockpit version, seems fine.) As ever, please fly what you like.

Additional Scenery
While most of the airports are in the default simulator, many are indifferently depicted. I recommend the following scenery packages for a better experience. (These scenery packages will serve today’s flight as well as our just completed flight in the Sarawaged Range further east on the Huon Peninsula.) I have crossed-out a few that we used before and won’t be used here. And I have added two that are already in the package but I forgot to list separately.

Recommended:
12 Papua New Guinea airstrips. Wantok. Required.
Fixes for 425 Papua New Gunea airstrips. Wantok. Required.
31 Challenging Bush Strips in PNG. Rudolf Friedli (cebros). This set includes a number of airports that we use for these flights. Required. [Rename (and disable) two files as follows: AYFI.bgl.OFF; AYYW.bgl.OFF ].
Bambui [BCP], Bawan [BWJ], Dinangat [AYDN]. Photosbykev.
Nankina [AYNA]. Milosanx.
Finschhafen (historic) [AYFI], Nadzab (current) [AYNZ]. Mountainair.
Lae (historic) [AYLA, NGLA]. Mountainair. Required.
(New) Aiyura [AYAY, AYU]. SkyborneVisions.
(New) Yawan [AYYW]. CroixPaille.

Thanks to these fine authors for their talent and efforts. (These are MSFS2020 sceneries ported into MSFS2024. Thanks to the authors, and to the MSFS2024 team, they work very well for our purposes.) (Possible Hints. Consider turning “Trees” to “Medium”, and turning Static Traffic to “Off”. Your tastes may differ.)

Temporarily, you can download a package that includes all the sceneries here. (603MB). [In this package, the two bgl files are appropriately disabled.] This is the same package that we used one week ago (“Over the Huon Peninsula”).

Ken Hall (through Orbx) has published three sets of payware PNG airstrips (1, 2, & 3), the first two of which will come into play here – providing 9 high quality airstrips for today’s flight. These are attractively modeled sceneries that depict local buildings, people, chickens, pigs, gardens, and even laundry. To be sure, the freeware renditions are plenty good enough for our aviation purposes. (Personally I do recommend the Ken Hall sceneries but this is only a matter of having a taste for eye-candy.) [If you do use the payware, you want to disable the freeware versions of AYNA, BCP, AYDN, and AYYW. And then go into the folder “OC_PNG_Morobe Finisterre 31 Bushstrips_cebros” and disable the files AYIS.bgl and AYTP.bgl .]

Time and Weather
For takeoff on Saturday, set the simulator at 7:00 am local for January 29, 2025.
We typically prefer real weather. Flying into unprepared mountain strips is often prohibited by professional PNG flying organizations when the winds and limited visibility are unsuitable. We shall adjust accordingly.

Multiplayer Particulars
Date and time: Wednesday, January 29, 2025. 1900 UTC
RTWR Multiplayer Discord Channel
Microsoft Flight Simulator Multiplayer: United States East server.

If you want to help others enjoy the multiplayer experience, don't forget to enter your aircraft details on the multiplayer spreadsheet (linked here). Please be kind enough to enter the title exactly as it stands in the title=”xxx” line of the aircraft.cfg file. Your courtesy will save others a lot of time and effort. Thanks!