When Julian Duff shows up for work he’s not exactly sure what will happen. On a routine day he may be called upon to fly a passenger charter flight or some freight. More interesting missions might be spotting prawns or taking passengers to a resort on the Great Barrier Reef. And then there’s the school runs and the cabin full of live giant crayfish.
Duff is a pilot for East Air, a charter operator based in Cairns, Queensland, Australia. The company’s location near the Great Barrier Reef, close to fertile fishing grounds, and within an easy flight to the Australian bush provide a setting for a variety of unique jobs. All of which are served by a fleet of 500S Shrike Commanders.
East Air currently operates five Shrikes, manufactured between 1969 and 1973. Duff said most of the older legacy Commander airframes the company used to operate have been sold off, and the airplanes that are left are all well-equipped and well maintained. The panels have been upgraded to either Garmin GNS430s or GTN 650s, and some have Aspen primary flight displays and other upgrades.
Although East Air flies what could be considered more conventional charter and freight flights, Duff is drawn to the unusual and challenging trips that fully use the airplane’s capability. One of which is unimproved runways. Because much of the interior of Australia is remote and not easily accessible by car, the government contracts with operators like East Air to fly the students back and forth to their urban, coastal boarding schools. Duff can take up to five students at a time. “The kids are well behaved,” he said. “It’s pretty routine for them now and they often have a supervisor with them who assists, particularly if they have connecting flights. The most amusing thing for the pilots is the contrast of excitement when holidays begin, compared to the disappointment of returning to school. I think lengthy negotiations take place trying to get everyone to the airport before we arrive.”
Charter flights to the resort on the Great Barrier Reef are particularly well suited to the Aero Commander Duff said. “Being a high wing the visibility is great.” The high wing is also critical to the company’s contract for spotting prawn in the waters off eastern Australia. Once a year East Air flies what Duff calls an “ex-marine skipper” to spot prawns from the air. They’ll relay position information to the boats below, increasing the likelihood of a good catch. “Having a high wing and great endurance, there is no better airplane for that mission,” he said.
But it’s the crayfish flights that really interest Duff. To a native of the American South, a crayfish is just a small, shrimp-like crustacean that’s something of a Louisiana delicacy. These are not American crayfish. “They’re as big as your arm,” Duff said. “You can hear them moving around in the back.” Most Americans would call them spiny lobster. Transitioning from passengers to freight is easy, and allows for complete flexibility in the fleet, he said. So when it’s time to drop off the kids and pick up the crayfish, the seats can come out quickly to make room. “Crayfish are carefully packed in cardboard boxes, stacked and secured by a number of cargo nets. The boxes are pre-weighed so the weight distribution is the same.”
A typical crayfish mission calls for a flight up to Papua New Guinea, or to the northern tip of Australia. “The crayfish are collected and delivered to Cairns, where they are placed in tanks, then sent to China the following day,” Duff said. The entire mission makes for a long day. From Cairns they head north to Horn Island, in the Torres Strait. From Horn Island they launch across the water 40 minutes to Daru, a small island off the southern coast of Papua New Guinea. “Pilots overfly the runway and township to let the guys on the ground know we have arrived,” he said. “PNG time is a close cousin of Africa or island time, plus or minus an hour or two from what is planned.” After picking up the prickly passengers it’s back to Horn Island to clear customs, refuel, and head to Cairns.
Being a tropical climate the weather is always a challenge, and every flight is flown single pilot IFR. Add in steep terrain, long overwater legs or remote backcountry missions, and it’s a demanding environment for the pilots and the Shrikes.
Duff loves the variety and the challenging nature of the flying. Before flying the Aero Commander for East Air he spent two years in Botswana flying to upscale safari lodges, good practice for the unique flying in Australia. “It’s a very nice plane to fly,” he said. “The guys I speak to who have transitioned to the airlines, their faces always light up when you tell them you’re flying an Aero Commander.”
