Pilot Joseph Tua completed four days of instrument-only flying so now he can serve Papua New Guinea’s isolated communities better than ever before.
Story by Tajs Jespersen
“The weather in PNG can sometimes be really challenging,” said MAF pilot Joseph Tua. “I have experienced weeks where the weather has limited my ability to serve our people in the remote areas as well as I would have hoped. It can be very frustrating.”
For this reason, MAF has trained our pilots to use the aircraft’s navigational instruments so they can continue to fly safely in challenging conditions and operate more efficiently.
On a beautiful morning in Goroka, Eastern Highlands Province, MAF pilots Brad Venter and Joseph Tua set out on a day of different flight scenarios.
“Joseph will be doing his instrument flying training, looks like the weather is actually too good,” said Brad. “We want challenging weather, so we can practise flying in the clouds.”
The plan for the day was to fly down to the capital Port Moresby.
“We were fortunate to find some small weather systems we could fly in and out of that required Joseph to use the weather radar,” said Brad.
For me as a pilot it’s so less stressful too. When I see bad weather, I now have the tools to safely and legally navigate it so I can reach my destination.
The training scenarios are designed to force Joseph to make changes to his flight plan on the go and place him into low-visibility situations, using only the cockpit instruments to navigate.
“The four days of training went very well,” said Brad. “We had actually scheduled further training with another training pilot, but the training went so well and Joseph already met all the requirements of the law so extra training is not necessary.”
Because the scenarios are not categorised as emergency training and has no risky manoeuvres involved, it is possible to complete a normal day with passengers and cargo serving the people.
“We advise our passengers if we’re going to be de-touring and take longer than planned due to exercises related to the training,” said Brad. “Most of the passengers are very happy and excited to do something a little bit different.”
For Joseph, the training has given him new tools to better serve isolated people of Papua New Guinea.
“I must say, the training with Brad was intense and I think, for the long term, this training is going to make a big difference for MAF as an organisation,” said Joseph. “For me as a pilot it’s so less stressful too. When I see bad weather, I now have the tools to safely and legally navigate it so I can reach my destination.”