by empty41 » Sat Jun 09, 2012 12:42 pm
I had occasion to fly in the Mallard several times, when I first arrived in Fiji in the late 60s there was at least one flying out of Nadi , I had occasion to travel in it several times to the Island of Kadavu, we used to leave from Nausori airport and land at the main center at Kadavu on either side of the island at this point, the island is quite narrow at this point and so the captain would have a look at the water and decide which side to land I recall one trip we went back to Nadi direct and he dropped of some passengers at an island resort just out from Nadi.
He had to turn the Mallard and there was quite a strong wind blowing and he really struggled to turn it down wind to get a run for takeoff, I had feeling for him having taxied DC3s on Wellington airport a few years earlier, saw a few ground loops but never did one myself .
A few years latter I was doing a contract in Tuvalu and in those days the air connection with Fiji was very difficult, on two occasions I charted the Mallard operated by Seabee air out of Auckland, they were based in Funafuti Tuvalu and were providing the connection to the outer islands of the group for the Tuvaluan Government, we used it to fly to and from Suva , I even advertised the flights over the radio in Funafuti to get some paying passengers to recover some of the costs.
This was a trip of several hours, took our own cans of beer and biscuits with us, we had a big life raft on the floor just inside the door, in that it was my charter I used this was my bed for the journey, it being very comfortable, bit like a big bean bag.
Travel around the Pacific in those days was always interesting, Michael Thoms