I had to take an urgently needed drilling bit from Aberdeen to the Ninian platform. 19.00 hrs departure in a S76A, all by myself with Unst as the diversion and booked to land after the delivery.
A clear night with half moon and after I had landed on the Ninian, unloaded I took off for Unst.
Scottish seemed quite puzzled with my flight information but before we could clarify it I was out of range. Approaching the coast I called Unst tower with no reply. I tried to call our company at Unst and again no reply. I passed over their NDB and there was Unst laid out in the moonlight.
There were no lights on the airfield except the hangar lights shining out on the pan. I could see the runway, Sumburgh and Scatsta I knew were closed so I set up a circuit on the unlit runway.
On final there was a sudden panting call on the tower frequency asking the callsign of the aircraft on finals. We established I wanted to land and he switched on the lights and cleared me to land.
I taxied onto the pan, shut down the aircraft, found a chock to secure it and went into the Bristow's hangar. There were our engineers in the office holding cups of coffee.
You would have thought a ghost had walked in.
They had no idea I was coming and the noise outside, not being familiar with a S76, made them think it was a Brymon Dash 8. The air trafficker then came in telling me that his bungalow was just across the road and he had heard me coming which is why he had rushed to the tower.
I was put up in the Baltersound. The usual beers and then I was kept awake by somebody banging an oil rep all night.
The reason for the non-communication was that the company ops controller at Aberdeen had an alcohol problem, they found a bottle of whisky in his locker and he had completely forgot about my arrangements. That turned out to be his last shift.
Last edited by Fareastdriver; 12th Sep 2017 at 13:44.