Expedition Day 48 After crossing the bone-dry outback of Australia, N944JK headed north-east across the Coral sea to Henderson Field on the island of Guadalcanal (Solomon Islands). The long way around the Pacific Most RTW pilots on the classic easterly, central pacific route, island hop from Australia to the western USA via New Caledonia or Norfok Island, Nadi (Fiji), Pago Pago (American Samoa ), Christmas Island( Kiribati), Hilo (Hawaii), Santa Barbara or Monterey ( California). Flying around the Pacific via Japan, eastern Russia, to Alaska is actually a shortcut to the west coast of the United States. Graphic credit: omniatlas.com After a brief visit to Cairns, Australia, I head across the Coral Sea to Guadalcanal. Intense humidity, malaria mosquitoes, and a rainbow at Henderson Field, Guadalcanal. A beautiful sunset at historic Henderson field. I came here to experience flying over the area hotly contested between the Japanese and American airmen during the early part of WWII, and possibly see a few war artifacts remaining on the ground. On my day off, I wandered around Honiara and visited the somber Guadalcanal American Memorial, perched on a hilltop overlooking the town. An occasional American or Japanese tourist visits the memorial, but the locals seem to have long forgotten about the war. Henderson field was carved out of the jungle by the Japanese military and later completed by the Americans after the capture of Guadalcanal. Life on Guadalcanal during WWII www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/life-guadalcanal
I can't imagine the hardship the marines encountered while fighting the Japanese on Guadalcanal in 1942/43. The American supply line failed, forcing soldiers to eat abandoned Japanese rations. It was not uncommon for men to lose as much as 40 pounds due to malnutrition and tropical diseases. The Japanese suffered equally and called this place "Death Island". The constant threat of Malaria Credit: National Museum of Health and Medicine During WWII, the US military produced a series of posters and comics as part of a propaganda campaign against Malaria. ----- On the morning of departure, thunderstorms were quickly approaching the Solomon Islands from the north. Humidity was increasing to intolerable levels as were the mosquitoes. Vanuatu to the south-east promised better weather, and I was motivated to leave quickly. There were major complications with payment for the fuel and airport fees, but I departed just before the tropical rains hit. Normally highly orchestrated, my IFR departure was completely at pilot discretion. The tower was manned and operational, but guidance that day was practically "do what you want". I followed the published SID, but tagged on "Black Sheep" to my radio calls (in homage to VMF 214) as I departed historic Henderson Field. 20 miles northwest of Henderson Field, a lone Solomon Airlines Twin Otter reported bouncing around in heavy rain. I announced my intentions on the tower frequency and climbed quickly over Alligator Creek in to ever thickening clouds over Iron Bottom sound, in the direction of Tulagi. At 1200 feet, I provided another position report, turned left back towards the Honiara, and climbed rapidly to 9000 feet for terrain avoidance. A relatively short distance away, the numerous jungle-clad peaks of western Guadalcanal were hidden in the clouds. I relaxed somewhat after heading over open water towards Vanuatu. Off my left wing, Vanuatu reported an active volcanic plume, but this could be avoided visually. "Black Sheep" with a B-17 bomber in the background.
The decal is a tribute to VMF 214 and Pappy Boyington. Comments are closed.
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