What's New In W. Africa (Nigeria)
Join Date: Oct 2003
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Bristow Local management
Bristow's local management continue their "cheap" approach of running things down there so they can secure their bonuses and exhorbitant salaries.
Pilots are now travelling home via the cheapest available tickets. This means adding an extra leg or two to your route. Also will have to start doing change over on weekends, meaning pilots will loose 2 weekends at home with the family every rotation. Last year there was a false glimpse of the company trying to improve accomodation, however now accomodation is back on a downward spiral and getting worse by the minute: Power outages now last hours instead of minutes, pipes continue to burst, roofs continue to leak, windows are badly fitted which allows mosquitoes to get in and lots of people getting sick from malaria...
Pilots have also started flying to the sim either on time off and not getting leave or pay in return for these days lost, or travelling to sim the day of, meaning you land from and long flight from Lagos to where your sim is and then doing your test just 3 or 4 hours later. Local pilots are also being cheated out of allowances or work over when, for example, they get called on a day off and do not get paid because in the end the client cancels the flight last minute.
Meanwhile management and a few hand picked pilots get bonuses which nobody is supposed to know about until, ofcourse, somebody slips up and then everyone knows. Or when the chief pilot in Lagos puts himself on night standby illegally after having worked all day or on time off so the he can get work over pay for it (apparently he makes in excess of 250 K USD/year!.... net)
But hey! I am not complaining! I feel great when I wear my target zero hat or my "are you ok" t-shirt. When you are so lucky that a huge hangar fire is put out by your neighbour because your fire hoses don't work or when taxiing a helicopter you run into a pot hole, collapse the front wheel and still choose to continue taxiing with pax on board and nothing happens to you I say to myself: this target zero bull**** really works!!!
Pilots are now travelling home via the cheapest available tickets. This means adding an extra leg or two to your route. Also will have to start doing change over on weekends, meaning pilots will loose 2 weekends at home with the family every rotation. Last year there was a false glimpse of the company trying to improve accomodation, however now accomodation is back on a downward spiral and getting worse by the minute: Power outages now last hours instead of minutes, pipes continue to burst, roofs continue to leak, windows are badly fitted which allows mosquitoes to get in and lots of people getting sick from malaria...
Pilots have also started flying to the sim either on time off and not getting leave or pay in return for these days lost, or travelling to sim the day of, meaning you land from and long flight from Lagos to where your sim is and then doing your test just 3 or 4 hours later. Local pilots are also being cheated out of allowances or work over when, for example, they get called on a day off and do not get paid because in the end the client cancels the flight last minute.
Meanwhile management and a few hand picked pilots get bonuses which nobody is supposed to know about until, ofcourse, somebody slips up and then everyone knows. Or when the chief pilot in Lagos puts himself on night standby illegally after having worked all day or on time off so the he can get work over pay for it (apparently he makes in excess of 250 K USD/year!.... net)
But hey! I am not complaining! I feel great when I wear my target zero hat or my "are you ok" t-shirt. When you are so lucky that a huge hangar fire is put out by your neighbour because your fire hoses don't work or when taxiing a helicopter you run into a pot hole, collapse the front wheel and still choose to continue taxiing with pax on board and nothing happens to you I say to myself: this target zero bull**** really works!!!
Join Date: Sep 2001
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Bristow's local management continue their "cheap" approach of running things down there so they can secure their bonuses and exhorbitant salaries.
Pilots are now travelling home via the cheapest available tickets. This means adding an extra leg or two to your route. Also will have to start doing change over on weekends, meaning pilots will loose 2 weekends at home with the family every rotation. Last year there was a false glimpse of the company trying to improve accomodation, however now accomodation is back on a downward spiral and getting worse by the minute: Power outages now last hours instead of minutes, pipes continue to burst, roofs continue to leak, windows are badly fitted which allows mosquitoes to get in and lots of people getting sick from malaria...
Pilots have also started flying to the sim either on time off and not getting leave or pay in return for these days lost, or travelling to sim the day of, meaning you land from and long flight from Lagos to where your sim is and then doing your test just 3 or 4 hours later. Local pilots are also being cheated out of allowances or work over when, for example, they get called on a day off and do not get paid because in the end the client cancels the flight last minute.
Meanwhile management and a few hand picked pilots get bonuses which nobody is supposed to know about until, ofcourse, somebody slips up and then everyone knows. Or when the chief pilot in Lagos puts himself on night standby illegally after having worked all day or on time off so the he can get work over pay for it (apparently he makes in excess of 250 K USD/year!.... net)
But hey! I am not complaining! I feel great when I wear my target zero hat or my "are you ok" t-shirt. When you are so lucky that a huge hangar fire is put out by your neighbour because your fire hoses don't work or when taxiing a helicopter you run into a pot hole, collapse the front wheel and still choose to continue taxiing with pax on board and nothing happens to you I say to myself: this target zero bull**** really works!!!
Pilots are now travelling home via the cheapest available tickets. This means adding an extra leg or two to your route. Also will have to start doing change over on weekends, meaning pilots will loose 2 weekends at home with the family every rotation. Last year there was a false glimpse of the company trying to improve accomodation, however now accomodation is back on a downward spiral and getting worse by the minute: Power outages now last hours instead of minutes, pipes continue to burst, roofs continue to leak, windows are badly fitted which allows mosquitoes to get in and lots of people getting sick from malaria...
Pilots have also started flying to the sim either on time off and not getting leave or pay in return for these days lost, or travelling to sim the day of, meaning you land from and long flight from Lagos to where your sim is and then doing your test just 3 or 4 hours later. Local pilots are also being cheated out of allowances or work over when, for example, they get called on a day off and do not get paid because in the end the client cancels the flight last minute.
Meanwhile management and a few hand picked pilots get bonuses which nobody is supposed to know about until, ofcourse, somebody slips up and then everyone knows. Or when the chief pilot in Lagos puts himself on night standby illegally after having worked all day or on time off so the he can get work over pay for it (apparently he makes in excess of 250 K USD/year!.... net)
But hey! I am not complaining! I feel great when I wear my target zero hat or my "are you ok" t-shirt. When you are so lucky that a huge hangar fire is put out by your neighbour because your fire hoses don't work or when taxiing a helicopter you run into a pot hole, collapse the front wheel and still choose to continue taxiing with pax on board and nothing happens to you I say to myself: this target zero bull**** really works!!!
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Murica.
Age: 45
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I remember being told that travel cost was out of control, and that we had to reign in spending on airline tickets, when we were already using seaman's tickets that we can't legally use. The tickets were accompanied by a letter stating we work on the Noble Lloyd Noble.
I asked where we could reign in expenses, when the tickets were so cheap they were illegal...accompanied by a letter falsifying our employment status...and by the way, how does this fit into COBI?
I asked where we could reign in expenses, when the tickets were so cheap they were illegal...accompanied by a letter falsifying our employment status...and by the way, how does this fit into COBI?
Join Date: Oct 2003
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Bristow Slogans
Well put friend. However, Im afraid COBI, Target Zero, Stop Work Authority, etc are all cheap slogans and catch phrases that they can put on their brochures to hand to clients and look good and win contracts. If during an audit (as it has happened before) these standards fail then you can rely on the infallible "well, its Nigeria, what do you expect". But the amount of s*^t that goes on in the back stage is endless.
Join Date: May 2014
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Travel on the actual airplane is now the least of it, (when CWL don't screw-up your original TR submitted well in advance!); how about the 3 hour wait at PHC on a bus in the parking-lot?
Join Date: Jul 2002
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Waited for 3hrs + one day, and when the final domestic flight from Lagos finally arrived our driver had gone to Genesis for something to eat!
He was quickly returned to his seat...
He was quickly returned to his seat...
Join Date: May 2014
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Drivers are a law onto their own and Journey Management is a joke! (Security so-called is an even larger laugh-riot at BHNL; unless of course you're a National and then you can Toyota yourself to NAF, although AO says it's against the rules?) Funnier & stranger than a "Seinfeld" episode. 
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Not just journey management. When we lived in Elelenwo and had SOS clinic, at least accommodation was fairly secure. Now that money has been saved and we live in our separate little enclaves we're just easy targets when the $hit hits the fan. NAF Base is just a shambles 
Join Date: May 2014
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You know there's such a "cult of personality" around the national-CP. If you're not one of his bottom-kissers then you shudder @ flying-roster + definitely know the weekend is not OFF! (Not forgetting his manipulation of accommodation?)
Vote with your feet for sure! Nigeria is a misery, but no point making it worse by bitching about it 28 days in a row. The meaning of life is making life meaningful; definitely too short and surprising to spend one more day @ NAF swallowing CP excrement! (He who hits rigs, circles, then lands?)
Vote with your feet for sure! Nigeria is a misery, but no point making it worse by bitching about it 28 days in a row. The meaning of life is making life meaningful; definitely too short and surprising to spend one more day @ NAF swallowing CP excrement! (He who hits rigs, circles, then lands?)
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Lost and Legless somewhere in LaLaLand
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Not everything is going badly in Nigeria 
Nigeria Supporters club demand 62million condoms for 2014 World Cup
The Nigeria Football and other Sports Supporters Club (NFSSC), are demanding for about 62 million condoms to be made available to fans, ahead of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
This was disclosed by Rafiu Ladipo, who is the President-General of NFSSC, while appealing to the United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) to take their request seriously.
UNAIDS Country Director, Bilali Camara, had said two million condoms would be provided for the entire duration of the competition, but Ladipo insisted that UNAIDS need to provide two million condoms for each of the 31 days of the World Cup.
“Of all football loving fans all around the world, I alone will be taking over 10,000 fans to Brazil, not only from Nigeria,” he said.
“You know that Nigeria will be playing their first three matches and there is going to be a match between Nigeria and Argentina.
“By the time we play that match, we will regard it as the match that will also qualify us to play Brazil in Rio de Janeiro during the final.
“If that is achieved, we want to be protected; we must be protected.
“So, I want to urge you (UNAIDS) to provide more condoms.”
Ladipo explained that fans who might want to have sex after their daily assignment in Brazil, would need the condoms for protection.
Nigeria is grouped alongside Iran, Argentina and Bosnia in Group F.
The Nigeria Football and other Sports Supporters Club (NFSSC), are demanding for about 62 million condoms to be made available to fans, ahead of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
This was disclosed by Rafiu Ladipo, who is the President-General of NFSSC, while appealing to the United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) to take their request seriously.
UNAIDS Country Director, Bilali Camara, had said two million condoms would be provided for the entire duration of the competition, but Ladipo insisted that UNAIDS need to provide two million condoms for each of the 31 days of the World Cup.
“Of all football loving fans all around the world, I alone will be taking over 10,000 fans to Brazil, not only from Nigeria,” he said.
“You know that Nigeria will be playing their first three matches and there is going to be a match between Nigeria and Argentina.
“By the time we play that match, we will regard it as the match that will also qualify us to play Brazil in Rio de Janeiro during the final.
“If that is achieved, we want to be protected; we must be protected.
“So, I want to urge you (UNAIDS) to provide more condoms.”
Ladipo explained that fans who might want to have sex after their daily assignment in Brazil, would need the condoms for protection.
Nigeria is grouped alongside Iran, Argentina and Bosnia in Group F.
Join Date: Feb 2004
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Here are 2 interesting blogs by Jideofor Adibe, a senior lecturer in political science at Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Nigeria, and adjunct associate professor in the Department of International Relations and Diplomacy, Baze University, Abuja. They give an explanation of the emergence of Boko Haram and Ansaru and possible trajectories of the Boko Haram conflict, some of which are quite worrying even for those living in the Niger Delta area, particularly with campaigning for the 2015 elections well under way and a lot more weapons entering the country.
Explaining the Emergence of Boko Haram and Ansaru
possible Trajectories of the Boko Haram Conflict in Nigeria
Explaining the Emergence of Boko Haram and Ansaru
possible Trajectories of the Boko Haram Conflict in Nigeria
Join Date: Feb 2004
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Two Bombs in Jos Kill More Than 118
There are reports on the BBC that more than 118 people are so far confirmed dead in 2 bomb blasts, 20 minutes apart, in Jos, the first by a busy market, the second outside a nearby hospital. A NEMA official says that the final death toll is expected to be nearer to 200 
Jos Bombings Kill More than 100
Meanwhile this morning at least 30 villagers were killed and several others injured as gunmen attacked Shawa village in Borno State. The attack on the village, which is about 25km away from Damboa town, took place at about 4am when the gunmen crept upon sleeping villagers, shooting and setting houses ablaze with petrol bombs. A resident of Shawa village who managed to escape the killings said the gunmen continually chanted "Allahu akbar" (God is great) while shooting sporadically.
The countries that attended the security summit on Boko Haram in France last weekend "have agreed that each country will contribute one battalion of troops to the international force set up to patrol the border areas, in line with the Resolution of the Lake Chad Basin Commission".
Jos Bombings Kill More than 100
Meanwhile this morning at least 30 villagers were killed and several others injured as gunmen attacked Shawa village in Borno State. The attack on the village, which is about 25km away from Damboa town, took place at about 4am when the gunmen crept upon sleeping villagers, shooting and setting houses ablaze with petrol bombs. A resident of Shawa village who managed to escape the killings said the gunmen continually chanted "Allahu akbar" (God is great) while shooting sporadically.
The countries that attended the security summit on Boko Haram in France last weekend "have agreed that each country will contribute one battalion of troops to the international force set up to patrol the border areas, in line with the Resolution of the Lake Chad Basin Commission".
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Life in Bristow Nigeria looks as if it's going to be what might be termed interesting . The Head of Flight Operations is due to retire in less than 3 months with rumors that yet again Houston will 'parachute' in a replacement (well we all know how well that went don't we 
? Rumor also has it that our new deputy Head of Flight Operations is off to greener pastures with an IOC and with no Training Manager around there looks to be a severe cutback in leadership - not that there's been much of any leadership around here since BS was forced out
Looks as if it might be time to revisit Caverton or Atlantic/CHC
? Rumor also has it that our new deputy Head of Flight Operations is off to greener pastures with an IOC and with no Training Manager around there looks to be a severe cutback in leadership - not that there's been much of any leadership around here since BS was forced out Looks as if it might be time to revisit Caverton or Atlantic/CHC
Rumor also has it that our new deputy Head of Flight Operations is off to greener pastures with an IOC
Ah, makes sense - not the first then! If that's OO, good for him.....