Actually Chuks, with that kind of good thinking....you may have been affected more than you think by all the association with mere helicopter pilots.
There is still hope as you were still able to withstand the last step of taking a new position at grossly less pay....but we are watching you for that total submission to our way of life.
It is odd to hear you finally admit you are no better.....you certainly never suggested that while holding forth on the topic while you so crassly quaffed all those Gulders snatched from the vouchers left by the mere working staff.
But you do lie yet....."hard work".....flying a Twotter?
Well, MD has came and saw but seems not to have conquered Eket . Still no news of any pay review - I expect they're waiting to be told we have Agbami - but many of we are just waiting to hear news of that other job we applied for, maybe with ADA or Gulf or GVH, or just to go back to Australia like many of the Australians are thinking now. When we have all manage to escape, both pilots and engineer, Bristow will be able to sell her 412s to Calverton as they will have none to crew or maintain them . With the writtings of Richard Burman about not to have any unrealistic expectations and the money they must be wasting with a brand new S76C++ (5N-BKM) brought in for Agbami gathering rust in there hangar after the flood, the most of us in Eket know that NEO is just joking with his forlorn hope . Things here will never improve, because is still to much of just the old Bristow thinking, where people matter little as accountants want only profit, $$$ $$$ $$$ before people. They have forgetten that is people who make all there $$$ for them . If these bosses is so great why have they not put the new helicopter out to work and make money from all the charter out there like Aero always seem to do so? It will be too littel too late and they will have only themselfs to blame when they lose there biggest money earner in Nigeria
What's really happening with that new S76C++ Bristow have in Lagos? Has it actually flown yet? If there's no news about the Agbami contract why haven't they just been using it for charter work or offering it to other clients? Do you suppose they'll go ahead and bring in their S92s and have them sitting around as well? These managers are ready to take the big profitability bonuses they get from cutting the already pathetic wages of local junior staff but I wonder if they'll have their pay cut when their decisions presumably cost thousands of dollars?
I don't see Aero bringing in their EC225s yet, even though they're painted up, in the hangar and ready to go in France. Is that because of the continuing dispute with CHC or because they have no work for them?
What about these Bell 412s Caverton is supposed to be bringing in to Nigeria in October? Is that going to be the usual story (i.e. just a story, like the AW139s) or have they actually got any work for them? If Bristow are having problems keeping pilots right now even on a 6/6 roster and always paying on time, how on earth will Caverton manage to get any pilots with their 13/4 roster, often late paying and sacking people all the time?
As has been said by others, it seems that more and more pilots (and engineers) are looking to other African countries such as Angola, the Middle East and Australia for work now. Nigeria is visibly in a decline and likely to continue that way if nothing is done quickly to improve matters
how on earth will Caverton manage to get any pilots with their 13/4 roster, often late paying and sacking people all the time?
Phonewind,
By accepting second or third best and relying on an industry which has a regrettable history of FNG's and PSBD's (Past Sell by Dates) who will accept any job as long as they get to grasp a cyclic and have a 50% or better chance of getting paid sometime - even if it will be late!
Or is my cynicism getting the better of me?
Can we guess whether any 412's that arrive will be shiny and new (Don't know where they'll find those) or old dogs?
Come on CavertonManagement - let us in on the secret.
Sasless was a young whippersnapper all those years ago - he just showed his superb people skills as a subservient Contractor when dealing with his Peers such as El Toro (Martin) and Dreid. He brought a new meaning to CRM!
It wasn't his fault that the average 212 had 30,000 hours plus!
He never had the joy of being given such wonderful examples of modern technology to fly such as BDD.
Cut the Old Dog some slack otherwise he will sail into Qua Ibo and demand all those gulders you promised him!
SASless also had the joys of dealing with his Nemesis, the delightful, Gallic, much-loved, baby producing Count WithoutanO. No matter how old SAS may be now, he can't possibly be as old as the Kapton wiring still residing inside the rotting bowels of BDD despite a recent D check. I'm sure that they saved a lot of money, but maybe some of those who now have to fly it, both crew and passengers should consider the following:
Kapton - the aromatic polyimide wiring insulation around the wire strands - has no place, in passenger-carrying aircraft. The main reason is that, in an electrical short, the wiring insulation chars to a conductive carbon residue and ignites like a dynamite fuse, affecting the whole wiring bundle (and therefore many disassociated systems). The phenomenon is known as arc tracking. Because the outer carbon char (and not the internal wire-core conductor) is then carrying the current, the circuit breakers most probably will not trip. There is therefore nothing to halt this "flashover" because the power stays on the wire. The older the Kapton wiring gets, the more brittle and vulnerable the insulation becomes. The wiring clearly is not safe.
Even though the British CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) has forbidden the use of Kapton insulation in new aircraft designs, a loophole allows it to be used in current designs. Despite ample warning about its dangers, the Royal Air Force took delivery of Kapton-wired Harrier GR5s. Two crashed because of the wire before the RAF embarked on a program to modify the use of Kapton in all the vulnerable parts of their planes.
In the early eighties, a US naval captain discovered an obscure Soviet technical publication, 10 years old, which analysed Kapton (technically an aromatic polyimide). The publication noted that the insulation decomposed when in contact with concentrated alkali but, more chillingly, the insulation was hydrolitic - it absorbed water. (Just great in a warm, damp climate like that of Nigeria). The report also mentioned Kapton's tendency to arc.
The US Navy, already alarmed at a rash of wire failures and unexplained flash fires in its fighter planes commissioned detailed tests of Kapton. These were conducted by Bob Dunham, its top civilian expert on aircraft wiring. Dunham's tests revealed a terrible truth about the now widely installed insulation. Kapton's positive aspects were heavily outweighed by its uniquely negative qualities. Its strength was negated by the fact that it had "straight line memory". It always wanted to return to its original position when on a wire drum. This meant that unless it was properly and frequently imprisoned in clamps it had a tendency to "roam" and subsequently chafe. Its ultra-light weight (only three and a half human hairs thick) was a huge commercial advantage, saving precious weight on the plane. But when the insulation wore through and the naked wire touched metal, it arced at 6000 degrees, and before short circuiting it flashed like a tiny banger firework.
Dunham's experiments then discovered that when the short circuit tripped the circuit breaker (fuse box) in the plane, once the breaker was re-set and the power restored to the wire, a new flame ran along the Kapton insulation, turning it into a charred flame conductor. In this way, fire spread along the path of the plane's wires.
Dunham, who videoed the tests, was appalled. So was the US Navy. By 1987, it had mothballed many of its Kapton-wired planes and unceremoniously banned Kapton.
So, if you're flying that good old heap of Double Dung and you have a fire, sue the crap out of Bristow for allowing it to continue shaking its way through the sky with a product which has been proven unsafe and is banned in new aircraft by the CAA
Ah El Toro....the epitomy of human grace, integrity, and political correctness re race relations! I wonder how many night stand bys he wound up owing one of the director's kids now a Captain flying very big planks?
As once was said to me by an English Gentleman....never allow an English Gentleman fall in your debt.
The Toro was just plain burned I made more money than he as a Chief Pilot....especially after the debacle on my license renewal where I and a local TRE and myself got put out of service until the Nigerian licensing folks got over their snit at being ignored by the Bristow powers that were.
Ah life can have it's rewards!
Is the first ever 412 in Nigeria still there? The one that underwent the 1200 hour in Accra then went grounded for months and months until it re-did another 1200 hour to correct what was undone on the first 1200?
El Toro met me at the BRC the night I arrived and tried to send me straight off to Accra for a couple of days....which turned into three weeks in a very nice hotel on the company tab. Some real facial egg seen when it was discovered I had the 212 type rating (but no 412 rating) on the Nigerian license after ferrying the aircraft to Lagos.
Might I assume DD is the one and same 412?
NEO....I always did Bristow favors....even taking a wet behind the ears young laddy for his first ever road trip in Nigeria...and even kept him from being detained after being arrested for violating immigration laws. How quickly one forgets.
Yup, El Toro was (and probably still is) a one off in many ways. I recall the huge expenditure at Idugboe renovating and furnishing an en suite room for a contract pilot who had failed at Eket and Aker Base due lack of spatial awareness and inabilty to generally "cut the mustard". The fact that said pilot was a former Ops Superintendent Overseas notwithstanding; I'm sure everyone got the same VIP treatment ? The three most sumptuous (and unused by any other) pilot facilities were El Toro's house, The Majah's suite and above retiree's. Resentment from mere mortals was severely frowned upon and brushed aside but never forgotten. Happy Days !
Sas, the road trip is not forgotten, however my recollection of the journey greatly differs from yours. Let's leave it at that shall we ? By the way, our Gallic colleague has retired (for the third time) and is now polishing his classic car collection in the underground garage of his hillside chateau outside Nice. If you want to visit I'm sure a bottle of finest Red wine would be waiting.......... The Warri child would be approaching 20 years old now, I wonder if he is enrolled at a fancy university with The Count's financial backing ?
5N BDD is the same fine airframe as the N395AL which arrived in Africa from Cyprus in 2001 (It was used up there to ferry US Embassy staff into and out of the Embassy in Beirut)
It arrived in Nouakchott for the initial Woodside contract and stayed there for about five months until August 2001 when it was moved down to Accra.
Apart from (and that is admittedly a big "apart from") the Crapped On - sorry Kapton wiring she is a fine example of a 212 with 4 blades.
I hear one pilot is in the pipeline to replace the seven departures from Eket holiday camp. That should really ease the burden on the already downtrodden crews So much for the hordes desperate to work for Bristow.
I wonder how long he'll last after the second or third bout of food poisoning in his first tour of duty ? Or maybe he has already developed iron guts
They say Angola is quite nice this time of year.........
Even on the S76 in Escravos pilots is now quiting. Once the crack is wide enough the trickel will become a flood but nobody in managements is saying one word
Your attempts at imitating a sunglasses seller from the high altitudes of Peruvian tourist traps are either tying you down to one person (Masu Pichu sunglass salesman) or as NEO on strong drugs!
Own up - I need polaroids - extra wide! - good price!
p.s. Neo - what price are strong drugs at Darrels right now?
Manidgement is asking for volunteers for Eket - GMIA - swap over - a good career move!
For years and years we have heard of this flood of biblical proportions....even in my time it never materialized as one after another the proponents of that theory signed on yet again and again all the while raging about the place and management.
Now I accept the fact there are real dinosaurs coming up on the magic 65.....and perhaps then they might be shifting off to the old country but how many others will actually pack up their bongo's and beat feet for greener pastures outside the warm loving embrace of Bristow Nigeria?
That might finally shift the balance to a tipping point but there are lots of young, action seeking sport dicks out there that will fall for the dangle of "big ships", "command", or what have you to....and the seats will be filled for long enough that yet another bunch of newbies can be scrounged up.
The content of todays' missive from CP's to "All Staff" was obviously written by your very self!
To paraphrase: - We realise that nobody really wants to go to Eket - espescially if you read PPRuNe - BUT - if you are a SFO and are prepared to "bite the bullet" we will ignore your current shortfalls and promise you COMMAND PDQ.
Judging by the comments on this web site over the years, these Bristow Operations are meant to have ground to a halt by now due to lack of pilots caused by the exodus. I wonder how these Operations continue to survive especially as management is not paying any attention?
Hi SAS, couple of corrections - sadly JC was only a lowly Ops Sup (predecessor of the well turned out situationally unaware contract pilot mentioned previously) Otherwise Doc and I would be Joint Chief of Staff by now denigning to speak to mere mortals. Secondly, big plank Captain (I'll take that as a compliment - sort of) is all relative when parked next to our first of 58 A380's. Mind you we do burn a 212 MTOW per hour of fuel - long live the low carbon footprint.
I was happy for El Toro to 'enjoy' his little soirees with Mrs El Toro! Always be careful of what you wish for - it might happen.
Sorry for taking time to respond, just back from Birmingham - not the Alabama one.
sadly JC was only a lowly Ops Sup (predecessor of the well turned out situationally unaware contract pilot mentioned previously)
TOD,
My favourite memory of JC was a night in several bars in Redhill when your Dad was fuming about an ex Crab who had been hired by George Puddy! He was so mad that his Scottish upbringing was forgotten and he actually bought Tony Coleman and I several rounds of drinks (probably claimed on expenses later!)
This pucker ex Crab chap had managed to lose his licence because of strobe effect of rotor blades merely months after being hired.
This was at the time of introduction of the famous Aerospat Tiger and JC plus several others needed to fly PDQ to Marignane for consultations.
Bristow had no fixed wing available so a private charter was sought.
A brand new turbo twin arrived at Redhill and when the 4 pax were met by the Pilot, they were shocked and stunned to see ex Crab hired by George lower the airstair!
We thought you had lost your licence they cried!
Only me fixed wing one he answered!
Who do you work for now? - they enquired.
Me - I bought this ship with my loss of licence payout from Bristow!
Silence and much grinding of teeth to and from Marignane!
BTW - we now use the CAE Emirates Sim in Dubai so p.m. me if you are prepared to slum it with mere Helo mortals! We Stay at the Dhow Palace.
. Still no news of any pay review - I expect they're waiting to be told we have Agbami - but many of we are just waiting to hear news of that other job we applied for, maybe with ADA or Gulf or GVH, or just to go back to Australia like many of the Australians are thinking now. When we have all manage to escape, both pilots and engineer, Bristow will be able to sell her 412s to Calverton as they will have none to crew or maintain them 
. With the writtings of Richard Burman about not to have any unrealistic expectations and the money they must be wasting with a brand new S76C++ (5N-BKM) brought in for Agbami gathering rust in there hangar after the flood, the most of us in Eket know that NEO is just joking with his forlorn hope 
. Things here will never improve, because is still to much of just the old Bristow thinking, where people matter little as accountants want only profit, $$$ $$$ $$$ before people. They have forgetten that is people who make all there $$$ for them 
Double Dung = Double Disaster
So much for the hordes desperate to work for Bristow.
Police Academy - Spic who really isn't!
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