In a related move, the company is also set to open its third operational base at the Nigerian Air Force Base, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, and a fourth one in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, early next year.
If Lagos is 1 where is 2??
Malabo, WOW!!! CHC had better watch themselves when the boys from the "centre of excellence" arrive............
Location: Still on some west coast...but a bit further south
Age: 38
Posts: 512
Centre of Excellence...?!?
Really? Where? I was recently told by a guy i.e. captain to shut up when I told him twice he was out of sequence. Cool stuff!!! Then I was told that I am a white southsomething racist - that was his next mistake. Stay tuned. Excellence is just oozing out of every corner.
So much about the standards of a hired workforce...
In addition to the acquisition of more helicopters, the company has acquired a second fixed wing aircraft, a 19-seater turbo prop developed specifically for operations with limited runway access.
Boots polished, Twinned Ooter knowledge fully up to date, excellence centred (last effort scored by the judges as: 9.0, 9.0, 8.5, 8.0, right down the middle but a bit of splashing so beat that if you can) all that remains is fully agreement implemented re: terms and conditions, Bajaj, company uniforms, etcetera.
Thanks to my late, ex-Navy father I now have a set of gold-plated wings to show my excellence plus warn other traffic approaching said Bajaj head-on in conditions of darkness. That and some Kevlar curtains and what could possibly go wrong this time around?
Yes, coming soon to a bush strip near you so keep that TCAS turned on and your transponders squawking, my little low-level rotary-wing brethren. Aviator, me! Well, sort of...
You know, I once had one of the Dornier demi-gods ask me, "So where is this Warri Air Strip I keep hearing about?" (He thought the runway at the NAF Base Port Harcourt was a bit tight.) So I showed him. He thought I was having a joke, there.
Similar story, different location: I was flying with a new FO (now an ACN Dauphin or S-76 Captain I think) and pointed out the old Warri Texaco yard at Effurun near the road to Steel Town.
He couldn't believe we used to have two 212s in there and fly them 75 miles or so with 11 passengers !! Never told him about the second hand 355s.........
Those were the days. Aunties Kitchen for cooling down or heating up depending on one's preference, Abraka on Sundays. Don't suppose we'll ever see the like of those times again.
Not forgetting the bush meat barbies on a Sunday and many 'Tree, trees' followed by a good 'fanning' in house 17 when the Warri surf team got home . Then making sure the burst tyre continued with his initiation into the ZZ Top society with a few rousing repeats of Velcro Fly
Night autos to the yard were interesting too weren't they; rather on a par with the interesting radar/NDB approach using Delta steel on radar to help with the positioning.
Sadly, I think you're right about not seeing the like of those times: now it's just airfields and lock down
I was just visiting a former colleague up in Sweden, when he told me something interesting:
He said that he had heard that Shell was pulling out of Nigeria. He wouldn't tell me where he heard that but he keeps in touch with many more people than I do, mostly on the engineering side of things. He said it had to do with the new trend of attacks far off-shore, such as the one on the Bonga.
Just something to float out there. Nothing much to do with me, of course, since I plan to get dual-rated on a Bajaj and carry on as a metropolitan cowboy in the greater Lagos conurbation. Coming soon to a go-slow near you...
Not content with all the other shit happening, now the BHNL HR Lunacy team is proposing that CLA is going to be paid in $$ or ££'s into bank accounts rather than handed over in cash.
The first person to come up with three hundred reasons why this is the most stupid idea to come out of the "Tail wagging Dog Factory" in recent memory wins a free all expenses paid 2 weeks in Darrels (Expenses will be paid in $$ or ££'s into your account in arrears in October)
Why don't they apply the old American adage - "If it ain't broke - don't try to fix it!)
Perhaps one might suggest to the ethics folks how that will promote the blackmarketing exchange of currency by company employees who have limited access to legal exchange facilities.
You perhaps miss the economy issues....as it is much easier to transfer funds at source vice maintaining several imprest accounts at each level of operation.
They really do have your interests at heart old lad.....really!
Besides...various management personnel now will not be tempted to play monkey shines with the company's money!
I agree but this has come at a bad time. Rightly or wrongly a lot of guys see CLA as part of their income. With all the other stuff going on plus the delay in the pay review accompanied by the rather weak "We are doing a survey and waiting for the results" excuse this was not the best time to start playing with people's money.
The timing of the survey got a lot of people asking why they waited until now rather than get it completed in time for the review. Now this CLA thing has thrown another negative thought into the minds of a lot of already negative thinking people.
The announcement was accompanied by an inadequate explanation which doesn't help. Why announce it then wait for everone to draw their own conclusions in the bar ? What is wrong with a document announcing and setting out exactly how it will be done ? It is poor communications that has set everyone's minds (and tongues) racing.
All that is true....very true.....but not germane to the issue.
Granted some of your countrymen see the CLA as a way of eating....drinking...making Mary on the Squire's account (some even plan to take the leftover money home on leave as a sort of "mad money" safe from the wife's clutches...) but at the end of the day it should not matter whether it is paid at source or upon arrival in country at the start of each tour. (In theory anyway!)
Perhaps the better move would be to close the company bar....ban drink....and consider any gatherings of three or more staff outside required company functions to be either a mutiny or union meeting and take disciplinary action accordingly.
In time perhaps introducing flogging as a means to raise morale will become popular again. That or require all staff to dance twenty minutes a day as Bligh did on the Bounty.
I am serious NEO....one of your countrymen...superior to your rank in the Army....endeavoured to take money home.
I can recall seeing him have Pilchard Sardines (The wee red can as I recall), a bit of chopped cabbage and that slimy stuff you know as salad dressing, and one slice of bread for lunch.....56 days straight for lunch.
Perhaps his school teacher friend subsidized his evening meals thus saving hime a few Bob.
NEO, Sasless is right. Perhaps you forgot him. The guy was very posh (although that was fake) and last I heard he was instructing at Middle Wallop near his house.
Centre of Excellence...?!?
The Twinned Ootter at Last
, or what BHNL seem to have got so far......ie, bupkess.
Or has it actually gone up from the tuppeny-hapenny that it was a few years back?
s a lot off p
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