SLF: Gulf Heli DOH question

[airwave45]

Any chance of a lift tomorrow or will I have to resign myself to spending time with Jack the cabin boy & master bates to get to the rig?

Surely you must have worn out the tiddlywinks and dominoes by now?

[Wizzard]

I'll just break out my ENIGMA machine and get back to you in a while

[airwave45]

Sorry,
the viz has been spectacularly bad the last couple of days and the fine chaps (and chappeses) have been unable to transport the great unwashed (bears) to the drying out centers offshore (rigs)
Plan b for the great unwashed is a trip offshore by boat, hence the references to splicing the parrot and rogering the mainbrace.

Nice an sunny now though (in DOH) hear was still a bit murky offshore this morning tho.

due offshore tomorrow, was (am) trying to get a 'heads up' as to wheather the wx allows play tomorrow in the spiffy flying machines, or is it going to be a day of watching a multi cultural crew turn a uniform colour (green)

[Curtis E Carr]

Not sure your "explanation" makes things much clearer.

[airwave45]

Is the wx up to flying tomorrow or am I going offshore by boat . . . ?

Doha, Qatar

[Epiphany]

BBC Weather | Doha (http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast/1298)

That would mean IFR and ARA's. Gulf don't do that.

[widgeon]

Man I could use some of that "boring weather" , why doesnt the forecast just say same as the day before.
More bleedin rain forecast here.

[airwave45]

:ugh:

Salty old seadog outfit manyana, suddenly the joys of an A/C equipped
http://www.helicopassion.com/images/AW/AW139-06.jpg
are much missed . . . . . :*

[Epiphany]

Oh the aircraft are equipped airwave. What you also need is the capability and training to use the equipment. Having an instrument rating and an IFR helicopter is quite different to actually flying IFR approaches to offshore platforms.

With 360 days of perfect flying weather a year Gulf probably don't think it is worthwhile.

[spinwing]

Mmmmm ...

Perfect flying Wx ..... not at the moment 300m offshore in BLDU !!!

When you guys at GULF get the Good Wx machine fixed can you send some down the road PLEASE!!


:}

[airwave45]

Ep, the Gulf 139's have lots of clever glass at the front of the bus, the A/C I was on about is the single most important part of the aircraft for us, the air conditioning :ok:

It might only be mid to low 40's Deg C on the weather reports but the car temp indicates that it's consistently high 40's in the real world and have seen higher than that, A/C gooooooood . . .

looking good in town . . . find out what it's like offshore in an hour

[airwave45]

Sadly, I'm breaking Proon rule 1 here (have had a shandie or three)

Was privelidged today to be on a flight from Al Khoor to NKD to NFB and back to Doha on an AW (B) 139.

Indonesian Captain (who I have smerked tabs with, who's name escapes me, sorry) and an arabian FO (who looked 12 if he was a day, but was supremely smooth on the controls:D)

it was the _smoothest_ least vibratory flight of my life.
the rotor was so well balanced, I swear I've felt more vibration in fixed wing flights.
The handling was just so, so, so smooth you would have really had to look at the cabin to know you were in a helicopter.

Top marks (all concerned) I know the dudes wearing the flight suits don't make the beast vibrate less.

I'm SLF and appreciate that rotary wing crews are actually doing something to improve the lives of SLF (the New approach to night landings e.t.c.) and despite being a jaded old fart in the back of the bus, I was hugely impressed by today.

Having been flown in probably more sectors in the N sea than some of the captains there (I've been SLF for 26 years now) the A7 heli I was in today was hugely impressive with it's balance and flight profiles.

I'm just SLF but when the beast isn't shaking itself to an early grave and the pilots fly it in a manner which doesn't induce an early grave I'm very happy.

To berate the point, the closest I've ever been to proper commercial aviation in a helicopter was today.
I want to get from point A to point B.
The guys in A7 XXX did that closer than I have ever experienced.
(backed up by whoever did the exceptional rotor balance job)

Thanks guys.
Now, get on to the cowboys in the N sea and show them how it should be done . . . . . .

[Epiphany]

Airwave,

I am glad to hear that your experiences as a passenger with Gulf were pleasurable. Hopefully your comment about N Sea 'cowboys' is meant in jest.

Having worked as a pilot with both Gulf in Doha and on the N Sea I can assure you that the operating standards and safety procrdures on the North Sea are far in excess of anything you will experience in your present location. Both places are very different and have their own demands but do not make the mistake of thinking that a short flight in a smooth AW139 on a sunny day can be compared with a N Sea flight.

[airwave45]

Cowboys, jest, moi ?

I dimly remember approaches to rigs in the N Sea in fog, going down below the fog where we could see the legs of the platform, getting close and rising up into the murk attempting to locate the helideck.

Donkeys ago going out on a Chinook on a Saturday visiting a whole heap of Shell rigs before getting to the one I was going to, being told to stay aboard when I got there (job cancelled) and visiting a whole other heap of Shell rigs on the way back to town, flight duration was over 5 hours and I ended up on the floor as the vibration in the seat was so bad I couldn't feel my legs anymore.

Shure a sunny day, short flight in the gulf probably doesn't compare to the Big Bad North Sea, but the Gulf Heli guys don't do night flying, don't do IFR flights, which neatly prevents night CFIT(W) . . which I have to say, I'm very happy with.

The thread on night approaches to helidecks is hugely impressive, but bordering on just "too hard" if something is actually "too hard" requires "exceptional" skills, why bother? the SLF are quite happy to sit in a hotel room and get blasted again, schedule things for daytime ops / wait for decent wx. it's a crewchange not a rescue mission. We are just going to work, it'll still be there tomorrow, and the day after. The guys offshore won't starve (they will bitch and moan / lie about the vis)

The "cowboy" comment was sort of, in jest.
We don't want hairy arsed heroes in the front of the bus, who will skillfully fly us through come hell or high water. We want people who will say "nah, not today boys" and fly in conditions that they are happpy with.
(caveat, we do actually want hairy arsed heroes who can fly through hell n high water when we screw things up and need rescued, again, at night in force 8 winds and 15m seas)

Do I think the N Sea pilots are better then the Gulf ones? (understanding there will be a few who do both) nope, I think the guys who choose to fly in the North Sea in the winter are nuts.
Highly skilled individuals, but bonkers.


Having worked as a pilot with both Gulf in Doha and on the N Sea I can assure you that the operating standards and safety procrdures on the North Sea are far in excess of anything you will experience in your present location.


hahaha, rubbish.

Having procedures weighing more than the aircraft, does not make operating in a harsh environment with highly complex equipment in challenging conditions "safe" or more importantly, sensible.
Deciding that you are going to fly VFR only, IMHO, is sensible, if a tad frustrating at times.

There are roughly 30,000 people offshore in the N sea at any given time (probably a good bit less just now, but just for arguments sake)
there have been about 1200-1500 killed over the time I've been in the biz. at work.
Which is why I don't work there anymore, just too scary.
(We have procedures and operating standards, which probably compete with the installations mass wise.)

I don't think that N Sea ops are "cowboy" ops in the manner that could be (usually is) inferred.
the subtext that a wee operator in the Gulf could never hope to be on a par with N Sea Heli operators, is just wrong.
In the context that, look, it's just a crewchange.

I am fully aware of the "cultural" issues and how they affect things. Now that I've had pro guidance on how to survive in the shark infested waters here, I still think it's a better place to be SLF.

(Dive supervisor told me when I queried his descision to put divers into he water while we had 40+ sharks in the area, he said, and I quote verbatim "man can swim through water faster than shark can swim though sh1t" and he put the divers in the water:D)

[Epiphany]

As a self-confessed SLF who judges a flight by vibration and comfort alone you are welcome to your opinion but you show considerable ignorance of the training, skill levels and competence of the crews that fly you. Which is probably a good thing considering where you are working.

I think you will find that the oil companies dictate the terms of contracts - not the SLF. Therefore in order to extract oil from the North Sea helicopters are contracted to fly crew changes at night and in low-visibilty that is why the crews are trained and operate suitably equipped machines.

The kind of approaches to rigs in fog that you mention undoubtedly took place way back when but the environment is very different today. Additionally the operator can and does check the parameters of each flight so that if there were cowboys operating they would identified very quickly.

And North Sea crews are not 'mad' just people working for a living and trying to do the best job they can as professional aviators in a demanding environment.