This Desoutter Mark II Monoplane is one of only 3 remaining in the world, having been manufactured in England in 1930. Today you will need to read the information card that I have posted as that has all the specifications and basic historical information for you. Needless to say, this aircraft known as "Miss Flinders", has flown right around the world and is now on display at the Launceston Airport (celebrating 91 years of continual service).
As a boy growing up in the highlands of New Guinea, little aircraft were the only alternative to walking for weeks through rugged jungle mountains and valleys. But it was dangerous in the changeable weather and I have flown personally with a number of pilots who tragically lost their lives. We take air travel for granted these days.
Anyway, one of the earliest things I can remember doing (even before beginning my correspondence school) was to learn the phonetic alphabet. Our house was on a hill in Laiagam, in the Lagaip Valley, a key service centre for what became known as the Enga Province. Every morning a number of aircraft would fly over our house and then make a final turn to land at the airstrip. [Morning flights were preferable because although we lived at 7,500 ft above sea level the tropical air currents brought almost daily rain in the afternoons making flying through the mountains extremely treacherous.]
One of those planes that would fly over was the fabulous old Stinson belonging to the local Kiap (Patrol Officer) Denys Faithfull. VH-BEN. "Bravo Echo November", and Denys would open his window and give us a wave as he passed over. So I could identify them all, and also taught myself about the aircraft. There were plenty of modern 1960s Cessnas, but also a lot of relics from WW2, including famously the German Dorniers being flown by the Roman Catholic Missions.
But there is one name I will never forget. "Mike Foxtrot Golf". The VH-MFs were flown by the Missionary Aviation Fellowship, and they provided a vital service right across the then territories of Papua and New Guinea. One day in early 1967 I broke my leg. As was so much the case in those days, everyone in the local community chipped in to help. I was treated initially by a Dr Sinnett (an eminent heart surgeon from Australia who was visiting the area to do surveys on heart disease). Meanwhile John Harverson the pilot of VH-MFG had just landed to make a regular delivery. They took out two of the seats from his little Cessna 180 and I lay immobilized alongside the pilot on the floor, with my father in the one remaining back seat.
It was a flight to remember. We were headed back to the coast and the northern city of Wewak for the hospital. But as it was now afternoon the weather began to close in. I well remember saying, "Dad I can see the river down there." Though strapped to the floor I could see out the window, so you can imagine how far the pilot was banked as he worked his way from one break in the clouds to another. His piloting skills were amazing and we arrived safely at the hospital.
But not too many months later on 23 June, 1967, John Harverson and two passengers in Mike Foxtrot Golf disappeared forever into the dense forest floor near the 10,000 ft high Hindenberg Wall. To this day they have never been found. I remember it like it was yesterday, because I felt I owed so much to that brave man. We always had the radio on in the highlands (it was the principal means of communication). So our family closely monitored the search that went on for nearly a month.
maf.org.au/latest-news/a-day-to-remember-harverson-memori... 