Timber!

Recently I was scheduled to fly 950 kg of building supplies from Hagen to Wanikipa airstrip. It sounds pretty straightforward - after all, I regularly fly over 1000 kg of 2-minute noodles to Simbai and 1000 kg of coffee back to Hagen. However, it turned out not to be that simple, because the building supplies were long lengths of timber that filled the cabin.

The ground staff had nearly finished loading the plane and I noticed it seemed to be sitting quite tail low. I quickly calculated the weight and balance and sure enough, the centre of gravity was outside the aft limit.

If the centre of gravity is too far aft, the pilot can lose control of the aircraft. I didn't want that to happen! Since there wasn't any way of redistributing the weight, the only way to move the centre of gravity forward was to put ballast in the front pod and offload an equivalent weight of timber. 80 kg was enough.

During and immediately after the take-off I tested the control effectiveness. It was less than usual (no surprise) but enough to continue safely.

The wood will be used to build an extension to the health centre in Wanikipa. Lots of people pitched in to help unload the plane and carry the timber to the village.

Offloading the timber

Everyone joined in to help - even the kids!