ML141226
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Subject: (Interview). Subtitle: Stephen J. Barinka. Timecode In: 00:01:04. Timecode out: 00:40:54. Notes: Richard Archbold; Aviation. Equipment Notes: Stereo=1; Dual-Channel Mono. NPR/NGS RADIO EXPEDITIONS Show: Geographic Century Log of DAT #: Steven Barrinka Date: 7/15/99 ng = not good ok = okay g = good vg = very good AC 1:46 Would you please say who you are and what your role was on this expedition? SB 1:53 My name is Steven Barrinka. I was recruited by Russell Rogers, Dr. Archbold¿s chief pilot, to join up with the expedition, and this was in the early part of, or rather, the later part of 1967, 1937, excuse me, and my, I was a working for O.J. Whitney, Incorporated, who ran a charter operation and a flying school at the North Beach Airport which is now the Laguardia Airport. And prior to that, I had worked with Pratt Whitney doing engine overhaul and that¿s why Russ Rogers was interested in me joining. I also carried the airframe and power plant licenses and licensed pilot and so he thought that it¿d be to his advantage if I could join, because it would fill two roles, someone knowledgeable with the engines and someone who could serve in the role of co-pilot. If that¿s enough for you to start with. AC 3:10 Oh yeah, that¿s great. Well, tell me, what did you know about this expedition when you set off? SB 3:18 Well, of course, I didn¿t know too much about, because I was mainly interested in the flight operations portion of the thing. I understood that the interior of New Guinea, along with the Antarctic at that period of time, was uncharted territory. In fact, it had never been explored before. So, but, that didn¿t mean too much to me because again, like I say, I was mainly interested in the operation of the airplane and my role was to maintain, help maintain the airplane and help fly it as co-pilot, naturally, under the direction of the chief pilot, Russ Rogers. AC 4:06 But you, were you excited to be going? I mean, if you knew that this was an unexplored part of the world, that must have had some¿ SB 4:15 Of course I was very interested. I¿m not too sure excited about the thing. I had been well-traveled before and so forth and the, it was kind of interesting to be able to fly across the Pacific and stay in New Guinea for a period of a year for the scientific exploration. AC 4:38 How long did it take you? You flew from the west coast in the plane, in the actual plane you were going to use to explore with? SB 4:46 That¿s right. The Goobah was a PBY patrol airplane, naval patrol airplane, which was, the Navy allowed the museum to use for the expedition, the expedition under Richard Archbold and Biological Explorations, which was his little explorations firm, bought the airplane and paid for all of the equipment and so forth to maintain the airplane for the year in New Guinea. AC 5:25 And while you were, so you were there and the plane went into Port Mosby, is that correct? SB 5:33 No, the, we flew from, we left San Diego, and about an 18-hour flight into and we landed at Pearl Harbor and we stayed at Honolulu for several days and then we were refueled by the Navy and went on into Wake Island, which at that time was a Pan-American stop and we were again refueled at Wake Island, and the next stop was into Hollandia, New Guinea, which would be our base operation for the exploration. AC 6:10 When you were getting ready, well, first of all, can you describe what it was like to be on this plane, what kind of size was it and how was it outfitted? SB 6:20 Well, the airplane was completely equipped for any overseas operation and we had special equipment. We had the top of the line radio communications, and our, that was run by Ray Booth, our radio operator, who was a former maritime radio operator, one of the best in the business. We had with us as a navigator Lo... (Notes truncated)
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- Cataloged
- 15 Sep 2009 - Ben Brotman
- Digitized
- 15 Sep 2009 - Ben Brotman
- Edited
- 15 Sep 2009 - Ben Brotman