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Table of Contents

Glimpse of the RAAF Meteorological Service

Preface

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1: Growing Up

Chapter 2: Port Moresby Before Pearl Harbour
Sydney to Port Moresby by DH-86
First Impressions of Port Moresby
Meteorological Office Routine
Flight to Kokoda
Tropical Meteorology
John (Doc) Hogan
Setting up House
We Join the RAAF
A Contrast in Attitudes
Some RAAF History
RAAF No 10 Squadron
RAAF No 11 Squadron
The Catalina Story
Construction of the Seven-mile Airstrip and Reclamation Area
Meteorological Service for the RAAF
Unexpected Vistitors
Our State of Readiness
Our Domestic Situation
A Japanese Surprise Packet
What Had We Meteorologists Achieved?

Chapter 3: Port Moresby After Pearl Harbour

Chapter 4: Allied Air Force HQ and RAAF Command, Brisbane

Chapter 5: Japan Surrenders and We Are Demobilised

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

Appendix 1: References

Appendix 2: Milestones

Appendix 3: Papers Published in Tropical Weather Research Bulletins

Appendix 4: Radiosonde Observations 1941–46


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Flight to Kokoda

When Norm Fader (an easy-going, friendly fellow who later enlisted as a pilot in the RAAF and served with distinction when the shooting war began) asked if I would like to fly with him to Kokoda and back I eagerly accepted. Behind the pilot's small cabin, where I sat with Norm, was a large bare cargo space in which assorted boxes and sacks of material were stowed somewhat haphazardly. A couple of apprehensive-looking Papuan passengers squatted on the floor.

The amount of freight carried by aircraft in Papua and New Guinea (which in those days were separate territories) was greater than in any other country. This remarkable statistic was the result of the rich gold discoveries which had been made in the ranges of those territories and the absence of any roads through the jungles which covered them. Most supplies and every piece of equipment and furniture which could not be carried over the mountain trails by Papuans and New Guineans was transported to and from the goldfields by aircraft such as the tri-motor Fokker flown by Norm Fader. All of the mining machinery was carried to the goldfields by air transport. The furniture of the families who lived on the goldfields was transported inland by air. The saga of aviation in Papua-New Guinea is a remarkable story. The weather was a crucial factor in this aerial activity. Flights mostly took place in the forenoon because the crude mountain airstrips were often inaccessible in the afternoon because the airstrips, and the jagged mountains which surrounded them, were covered by overcast low cloud.

My flight with Norm Fader was short but spectacular. We left early in the morning when only a few clouds dotted the densely wooded craggy Owen Stanley Range, flew through a gap in the range between two 13,000 foot (4km) peaks and dropped down to a short sloping unsealed airstrip in the narrow Kokoda valley. After the human and other cargo had been unloaded the cabin was piled high with cargo for the return journey. We roared down what seemed to be a far-too-short runway to climb steeply out of the narrow valley, back through the gap and down through rapidly-growing cumulus clouds to Port Moresby. Aids to navigation in Norm's tri-motor Fokker consisted of an airspeed indicator, altimeter, compass and turn and bank indicator. No radar or other ground-based navigation aids were available at that time. Obviously a knowledge of cloud conditions was important for survival of pilots navigating through the narrow mountain passes in the jungle clad Owen Stanley Range.


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Gibbs, W. J. 1995 'A Glimpse of the RAAF Meteorological Service', Metarch Papers, No. 7 March 1995, Bureau of Meteorology

© Online Edition Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre and Bureau of Meteorology 2001
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