I booked a flight in a helicopter in Katherine to scope out some birding spots and to get a lay of the land. After we had been airborne for about twenty minutes I noticed a red flashing light and asked the pilot (young lady training) why it was flashing. She said it was the fuel level but not to worry as they have had problems with the fuel sensor. She then began searching for a landing spot and radioed for a fuel truck to meet us. We (my wife was with me) were asked to move away  from the chopper so they could refuel it, which we did and as the guy in the truck tried to refuel the chopper he sprayed fuel all over his ute and the chopper. I was half expecting the chopper to burst into flames when the pilot restarted it but thankfully it didn't and we managed to finish the flight.

Refueling on hillside in PNG



One day had forced landing and had to stay night in jungle before other chopper got us out.

tallowood wrote on Jul 18^th, 2026 at 8:49pm:


Were you doing volunteer work in PNG? An old high school friend went there probably about 45 years ago to help with water pipelines and built a church.
He met his wife there as she was a midwife/nurse.

We ended up meeting decades later in his log cabin he built in Kinglake (Vic) later when our daughters formed a friendship at college and went to each others homes as they do when teens.
Then we met up and reminisced. Was great! We had a night where they showed us all the photos of PNG and works.
They had a lot of interesting stories and memorabilia items.

Unfortunately they lost everything in the black Saterday fires of 2009.
They survived by staying in the dam with just an inch of air to breathe on waters surface.