Sea plane makes a splash in Cairns before heading overseas to serve remote communities
The water-adapted aircraft dazzled onlookers on the marina as it made its final preparations before an important trip overseas. Find out more.
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A sea plane has made a splash landing at Trinity Inlet ahead of being deployed to fly health workers to remote communities in Papua New Guinea.
With sunny skies and a beautiful clear blue ocean, Cairns Esplanade and the marina formed a picturesque backdrop for the aircraft, named P2-WET, to make its final test flight on Tuesday before it headed overseas.
The successful test was the reward for months of effort for a team of engineers who carried out refurbishment and mechanical works on the plane at the Mission Aviation Fellowship International (MAF) base in Mareeba.
MAF, a Christian organisation, operates in 29 different countries to bring “help, hope and healing” to remote and needy communities.
“We’re really excited about this, because this float plane is going to add to the ten aircraft (we already have) in Papua New Guinea,” MAF Chief Operating Officer Norman Baker said.
“There we are working to open up access to the Western Province, where we will open up a lot of the waterways.
“There’s more than 100 communities that are completely isolated, and don’t have access to things like healthcare and education and some of the basic needs of life.”
Mr Baker said the plane would make a huge difference to the remote PNG communities, which relied on boats to access essential items.
“What we do is we provide the ability to bring cargo and materials and people in and out of the communities,” he said.
“There’s no way to get in, except by boat, it takes forever and sometimes weeks to get access in to provide much needed help in these communities.
“With aeroplanes, we can come in and out, sometimes multiple times a day.”
The plane is a modified Cessna Caravan, fitted with floats which allow it to take off from and land in water.
P2-WET was previously used in aid-delivery missions in Bangladesh.
“The Cessna Caravan is a workhorse in the industry, there’s more than 3000 of them flying in the world,” Mr Baker said.
“This one’s been outfitted obviously with what we call floats, so there are pontoons that are on the bottom of the aeroplane that allow it to be able to land on water.
“If you look closely you’ll see rudders and it also has landing gear so we can land it on land (as well).”
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Originally published as Sea plane makes a splash in Cairns before heading overseas to serve remote communities