Pride of a tribe gone too soon

TRIBUTE

Freelance writer PAUL MINGA recalls the days when Capt Peter Wanamp Anshpill carried the Senglap and Jiwaka banner into the skies

ONE of PNG’s finest pilots, the late Capt Peter Wanamp Ansphill (Capt Sheriff) was a flag bearer of the Jiwaka people and the pride of Senglap tribe.
Peter was the first son from the Waghi Valley to brush aside fear and risk that is imminent for any aviator.
He was in fact a brave intellectual venturing into a profession that not many students from our province (Jiwaka) dared taking up like those many students from other Highland provinces were doing around that time. He was indeed God’s blessing to the Senglap tribe and Jiwaka as a whole.
His breakthrough as a first to become pilot from the locality had led him into making a name for himself as a hero amongst the Jiwaka community. He broke the barrier in becoming a pioneer pilot for the three ethnic groups – of Jimi, Waghi and Kambia – which which were to later form the new province of Jiwaka.
Peter’s parents were simple subsistence farmers who were not so conscious of the importance of their son’s education at the time in the 70s and 80s as was the case with most rural parents then. Therefore, they had not much input in encouraging and giving Peter advice like educated parents these days are doing to their children for their future job prospects and emphasising the value of education.
But their son through his own determination, desire and passion set his objective on target and worked towards it and eventually had his dream fulfilled in becoming a PNGDF pilot in the late 80s and served the army for some time before moving on to civil aviation.
He was indeed a determined and brave person to have taken up what was then a rare profession not many young people from Jiwaka dared taking up. Medical doctors and pilots were regarded as professionals who had done briliantly in mathematics and science while in high school.
According a school mate with whom Peter passed the grade six exam at Kerowil Community School and went on to Minj High School in the late 70s, his mate was very brilliant in maths and that saw him come first in the Grade 10 in the national examination and was awarded the dux prize during the graduation.
With his brilliance and academic excellence he was accepted for an engineering course at the University of Technology in Lae as a Grade 10 direct entry student in the early 80s.
However, Peter left university studies for pilot training after successfully passing his cadet entry test. Peter attended the RAAF Point Cook Flight Training School in Sydney in the early 80s together with other fellow PNGDF cadet pilots included Terry Togumagoma, Paul Paulo Boga, Eric Aliawi and Chester Berobero.
While Peter was still attending flight school in Australia at home news was circulating within our tribal community that Peter Wanamp – as most of us usually called him – was now flying planes.
News of Peter flying arrived home when I was doing grade one at Ambang Community School in 1982. I could still remember one time when mum told me, “People are saying that, Peter Wanamp who went to study to become a pilot is now flying a plane.”
When I heard this I was very pleased but at the same time was scared. I imagined myself being right up at the tree tops and taking a view of the place below and the imagination of falling off from such a height frightened me. It was indeed a scary sight and experience when I climbed right to the tree top. That was typically what l had when I heard people saying that Peter was flying a plane.
A year later when I was in grade two in 1983, I could still remember one time, during class time at around 11am, when one of the classes was outdoors having physical education lesson. The rest of the school including my class as usual were having lessons inside.
All of a sudden a big noise shook the whole school as a PNGDF Caribou aircraft flown by Peter approached. All the senior students that had a fair idea of the camouflaged aircraft called out, Peter Wanamp! Peter Wanamp!
Peter was flying really low over the gum tree tops. The engine noise of the Caribou and the cheering students having sports outside made those of us inside wonder what the the fuss was all about.
That instant most students and teachers were caught off guard while others bumped into each other while trying to make their way out to see what was going on.
It was a hilarious melee as I could still recall. Some students jumped over their desks trying to make their exit first. Noise of the moving desks and tables could be heard in every classroom as everyone tried their best to get out to get a glimpse of the low flying caribou.
When I managed to get myself out, I saw that Peter flew very low past our school in following the infamous Binz River upstream to Binzkhu – his sacred home and hunting ground.
We all stood in awe as he turned back, avoiding Karaptoi peak as much as possible as he was no stranger to the place.
He skillfully turned the caribou nose in the direction of his small Banz township for Kagamuga as we still gazed into the horizon of his route. Wow, what a sight for us both students and teachers that day!
From that first sight, I confirmed that the story of Peter flying the army plane was true. Over time, whenever Peter had a scheduled flight to Mt Hagen’s Kagamuga Airport he made sure to descend low over Waghi Valley to signal to us that it was the boy from the valley flying by.
He did the same to his people from the valley with the Fokker 28 jet aircraft while working with Air Niugini when he left the army.
Peter worked with the PNGDF for quite a while and left to worked with third-level airline company Islands Nation Air for some time. From there he then moved on to Air Niugini as first officer on the F28 jet aircraft and made his way up to become captain of the same aircraft model.
After securing an overseas job contract Peter went and worked for an international airline company based in Thailand flying the Boeing aircraft.  When his job contract ended in Thailand, Peter came back and worked for Air Niugin once more. This time as captain of the A380 Airbus for international routes until his passing in April, 2018.
When the news of Peter’s passing circulated back home it was in fact a big blow to the Jiwaka people as there are not many Jiwaka pilots even today.
Two notable highlights of the late Capt Peter Ansphill’s achievement were that he at one time served as president of PNG National Airline Pilots Association and, later appointed as chaiman of Telikom PNG during the late Sir William Skate’s term as Prime Minister after the 1997 general election.
The memory of the tribe’s pride and the man who bore the Jiwaka flag and left his legacy which will live on.
Angam, you were once and forever a sweet story on our lips!