As our famous Flying Chicken has now been savaged by the Nigerian Eagle and we are badly wounded, we are retiring hurt. Be warned, you guys will never make it on your own. We came in, we gave you everything, especially the benefits of our superb management and what did you do? You kicked us in the face and stole the senior managers we sent out to sort out the mess you had yourselves in. We'll come in and pick up the pieces again once you've gone the way that Virgin Nigeria is rapidly headed.
An interview with Randy Organ was published in this month's edition of CDF magazine:
CDFM: Hi Randy, it's a pleasure being able to talk to a new rising star in the online publishing community. Your first edition of the BIA(G)L Newsletter is regarded by many as a masterpiece of the genre and is sure to become a collector's item with its masterful use of colour and words and incorporating detailed maps and so much useful information. How do you find the time to do it?
RO: Well, I don't know if I mentioned that I was a Senior Stores officer in the British RAF, but doing all the sorts of staff courses that senior officers like myself do, you learn a lot about time management and publishing, using complex programmes such as Microsoft Word, which lower ranks never know about. Also, I had many hints from my great mentor Brew Meddling who rose to great prominence once he had mastered making tea and coffee. I've now freed up more time for the next great masterpiece by taking on an assistant. When you're an HR mogul you have opportunities to create empires like that.
CDFM: As a Squadron Leader in the RAF what sort of squadron did you command? I'm sure you must have seen a lot of action during your many years of active service. Do you find your present appointment rather humdrum in comparison?
RO: Well, I don't know if I mentioned that I was a Senior Stores officer in the British RAF and as such never commanded a squadron of actual aircraft, but my job was far more important in keeping things flying at the front line. After so many years of managing stores I decided to utilise all my management skills in dealing with real people, whilst still working in a dangerous front line environment, hence my decision to offer my years of skill to BIA(G)L. With all my years in the military and the school of hard knocks that just goes with my major sporting achievements in rugby, the opportunity to visit dangerous bases in the front line of the Niger Delta was just too much of a challenge to turn down. The opportunity of learning from a master of Human Resources such as David Knowall was also too good to pass up.
CDFM: With all that you've said so far Randy, it seems that you cut your teeth on danger. Wouldn't you rather be out in the thick of it with the boys?
RO: Naturally, as a man of action, it's something I've thought of, but I'm an independent sort of chap. Senior managers in Nigeria live attended by servants to do their every bidding and are driven to work by chauffeurs. I prefer the simple life in the Island (as we call Guernsey), where I have to do some of my own shopping, cook and even have to drive my own Porsche. Mind you, it's pretty frustrating sometimes driving a Porsche when the Isle only has little twisty roads. However, I feel I'm demonstrating solidarity with the boys in the bogs, or swamps or whatever they are, by coping with the constant hardships on the Isle.
CDFM: It certainly seems you live life right on the edge Randy. You said that you even have to do shopping? Is it safe to do that on the Isle? Presumably you also have to do this in your precious spare time?
RO: Yes, unlike the chaps out in the bogs, I don't get 3 square meals a day provided free by highly trained international chefs. I have to pay for all my own food, and let me tell you, that's pretty darned expensive on the Isle, not to mention the shortages we sometimes have to cope with when tropical storms prevent supply boats arriving from the mainland.
CDFM: You're an inspiration to all of us Randy and I'm sure you're regarded with awe by the men whose lives you've made it your duty to improve.
RO: Well, I don't know if I mentioned that I was a Senior Stores officer in the British RAF, so it's just something which comes naturally to me. It's been nice talking to you and if at any time you come over to the Isle we can have a business lunch together to discuss how to further improve the legend of Randy Morgan, man of action, man of the people
Well someone has already leaked the news that daddy has singed a deal with Bell to buy the 412 Super we are looking for only toppest professional to join the team at the center of excellence. The Bell 412 Super builds on the well known star of the Veetnam war, the Huey. Bell have not tried anything smart and we are excepting many years of reliable service from it, just as our customers expect from the center of excellence. We need engineer, pilot, training pilot, all. As indigenous company the Super Bell will have us in the primest position to pluck work from foreign usurpers with no hold back of any such thing as Kobi. We will be paying the toppest salary of any company in Nigeria and offering accomodations in superb comfort with cash allowance paid every month for your very good living standard. Why not visit our website and join the best NOW
Aero should have plenty of pilots available if the 225's are en route and they need crew. With the deafening silence from Bristow about any pay review and the recently awarded CLA at bases such as Eket, Escravos and Warri now about to be withdrawn I think what NEO will see happening is his empire rapidly shrinking . As has been said by numerous people, although the money in other places may be less, it's not much less and the management surely can't be any worse than the non-existent management in CHC or Bristow. I forecast that even Caverton will benefit from all this. I wonder how many other people, like me, are just waiting for confirmation of other offers before making the decision to quit? I'll still keep an eye on the place after I've gone, but only so that I can see that it's not likely to improve any time in the medium term. Bristow and CHC will both still have many people wanting to come out here, but that just means that the standards, which have already dropped to an all time low will dip further as new crews with no experience of the Nigerian dimension arrive - and who's going to train them
PW how right your are. I just heard (first hand) that their 225 TRI/TRE has quit, and taken up a position back in Australia.
When will CHC realize that if they do not look after their people, they will not keep them? Yes, all the old-timer pilots will stay as they unfortunately have no other options most of the time, but the improvement of the gene pool for the work force in Nigeria will continue to stagnate.
This little nugget of information may well have gone un-noticed by many Prune readers:
Quote:
YAR’ADUA NAMES NEW CDS,
SERVICE CHIEFS
President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has approved the appointment of Air Marshal Paul Dike as Chief of Defence Staff. Air Marshal Dike is to take over from General Andrew Azazi who is retiring from service.
President Yar’Adua also approved the appointment of Major-General A.B. Dambazau as Chief of Army Staff in place of Lieutenant-General Luka Yusuf who is also retiring. Until his new appointment, Maj.-Gen. Dambazau was the General Officer Commanding the 2nd Division of the Nigerian Army in Ibadan .
Other changes approved by the President in the command structure of the Armed Forces include the appointment of Rear Admiral Isaiah Iko Ibrahim as Chief of Naval Staff in place of Vice Admiral G.T.A. Adekeye who retires from active service. Rear Admiral Ibrahim was the Flag Officer Commanding the Naval Training Command, Lagos .
President Yar’Adua who left Abuja this evening to perform the lesser Hajj in Saudi Arabia also approved the appointment of Air Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin as Chief of Air Staff. Until this appointment, Air Marshal Petinrin was the Air Officer Commanding the Nigerian Air Force Training Command, Kaduna .
All the appointments are with immediate effect.
President Yar’Adua and the Minister of Defence, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed have met with the outgoing Chief of Defence Staff and Service Chiefs to thank them for their services to the nation.
Olusegun Adeniyi
Special Adviser to the President
(Communications)
August 20, 2008
President Yar'Adua is said to be facing another health crisis and will be treated in a hospital in Saudi Arabia. His spin doctors are claiming he is going for an early Hajj timed to coincide with Ramadan. With the latest reshuffle, men loyal to James Ibori, the notorious former governor of Delta state, facing charges of laundering more money than anyone in the history of this country, will take charge of the Yar'adua regime. Two weeks ago, Yar'adua had appointed David Edevbie, a former commissioner of finance of Delta State with extensive links to Ibori's money laundering activities as his "Private Principal Secretary".
Ibori owns Wings Aviation and both he and his wife Theresa are being extensively investigated in both Nigeria and UK on charges of money laundering.
Sahara Reporters further reports:
Quote:
Yar'adua had delayed his medical trip for a day in order to announce the removal of the service chiefs following what SaharaReporters had earlier reported as a spreading sense of unease in military circles over the illegitimacy of Yar'adua’s presidency. “Many military officers are still upset about the way the April 2007 elections were conducted,” a source, who is a retired military officer, recently told our correspondent.
Quote:
Mr. Yar’adua's present sickness has provided a public relations nightmare for his wife and closest aides who dread the political fallout of public knowledge that Yar’adua remains in fragile health condition. Last week Tuesday, Yar'adua canceled a meeting with newspaper publishers due to medical emergencies.
A reliable source within Aso Rock told Saharareporters that this concern with public perception led to a decision to announce Yar’adua’s medical trip to Saudi Arabia as a lesser hajj. Muslim fasting commences in two weeks time.
Yar'adua will not be traveling with his aides or his Nigerian doctor in order to make the trip appear like a private religious trip. He is expected to be away for one week starting from tonight.
Yar’adua, who was thrust into the presidency in last year’s massively rigged election, has been bedeviled by a series of health crises.
At the end of July 2008, Yar’adua collapsed in the presidential vehicle on his way to a launch at the Yar'adua Center in Abuja (named for his late elder brother). He was driven back to Aso Rock Villa, missing the ceremony he was to attend.
Dating back to his presidential campaign days, Yar’adua has been flown several times to Germany for treatment. But his present relapse has created a dilemma on how to embark on another international medical trip to Germany. His closest aides calculate that another emergency medical trip to Germany would be politically costly.
“The fear is that another medical trip to Germany might leave the impression that President Yar’adua is too physically ravaged to continue the day-to-day running of the country,” said a source close to the Yar’aduas.
Yar’adua’s wife, Turai Yar’adua, who is personally overseeing the campaign to influence Supreme Court justices to uphold her husband’s election, is particularly worried about any perception that her husband is too frail to continue in office, according to several of our sources. Mrs. Yar’adua has recently rebuffed pleas by some northern leaders to encourage her husband to endorse the idea of new presidential elections—and to announce his retreat from running. She has countered that, even if her husband dies in office, he would not be the first Nigerian ruler to do so, pointing to the case of Sani Abacha, the late military dictator.
The plan to fly Yar’adua to Saudi Arabia became the option once his inner circle decided that it would be politically damaging to return him to Germany to see his doctors.
Saharareporters has exclusively reported that Yar'adua suffers from Churg Strauss syndrome, a condition that kept him hospitalized in a hospital in Wiesbaden, Germany for 10 days last April.
Yar’adua’s medical treatments in Germany have also created a legal problem for Bilfinger Berger, the parent company of Julius Berger, Nigeria's biggest construction company with a reputation for corruption. German State investigators are poring over Bilfinger Berger’s financial documents over improper payments made to Nigerian public officials in relation to several construction projects.
According to published reports corroborated by officials of the Yar'adua regime, Julius Berger has been responsible for flying Yar'adua to hospital in Wiesbaden. Some of the hospital bills footed by Julius Berger are believed to be the subject of investigations and inquiry by the German police, BKA.
In Nigeria we may be sick of military rule, but since the return to civilian rule corruption has increased exponentially and there are a significant number of people who would welcome someone like Gerry Rawlings to sort out the country's malaise. However, we would do well to remember the old adage, 'be careful what you wish for as it may come true'.
OK, Here's what one Bristow friend tells me. CLA has jack to do with cost of living. In most places in Nigeria Bristow guys have to pay for food. Like in Lagos, some hotel took over running their staff house - food, cleaning, the lot except the bar. The guys there pay cash for every meal they take and it costs around $25 a day for 3 meals. They were paid this in local currency in cash. Now the money will be paid in their $ salaries and all the guys will have to arrive in country with a stash of around $1,000+. Great thinking in a country with a security situation like Nigeria guys It's not even as if you can just go out to an ATM and take the money when you need it (unless you want to have all your identity stolen and find someone has suddenly been using your card for buying a load of goods in Dubai or Hong Kong). Typical bean-counter nonsense where it's good for them and bu99er the poor guys who have to live with their narrow-minded accountant-think . I remember back in the days of Alan Bristow where Bristow had a real good name. Now it's just another garbage GOM company trying to cash in on the Bristow name. Guess what guys - it ain't working. You've fooled nobody. Go on back to your homes guys and get a life. I did it years back and I've never once regretted it because my quality of life is now so much better than when I was touring.
Location: Still on some west coast...but a bit further south
Age: 38
Posts: 512
Join the best....Haha
Should I wee in my pants because I have to laugh so hard or am I high on weed. However, those folks who left Nigeria and were able to make a change for the better should consider themselves as lucky. But what about the others who are stuck in wankerville and can't get to some other place because of lacking opportunities?
And for Caverton management...kindly respond to emails when we send them because otherwise "joining the best" is just like another punchline and a waste of time.
There is always the wonderful world of transcontinental truck driving....you too could forge that special bond between Man, Machine, and the Open Highway!
There are always other opportunities out there....afterall most helicopter jobs are transitory events for one reason or another.
Look for the operator that is on an up-swing....and get aboard....ride that wagon until it reaches top dead center then heads down again. Repeat as often as necessary until you croak, retire, or marry a rich woman.
I think you have the wrong order there. Surely it should be marry a rich woman (preferably young, pretty and athletic ). This will enable you to retire and as a result of spending more time with your athletic young inamorata you will soon croak
alouette,
I suggest if you want to contact Caverton you just try a telephone call. On their website their number in PH is given as 084 571 450 or in Lagos 01 737 9255. I'm sure if you ask for their Operations Director, Sunny Adegbuyi you'll be given a number to contact him. Sunny is a good guy (ex Bristow). Despite the post from CM, I have heard that they really are getting up to 6 Bell 412s for delivery in the next 9 months and will obviously be in need of qualified pilots and engineers. However, pacta sunt servada (agreements must be kept) applies in their case and I have heard of numerous people still owed money by them after leaving. Be sure of getting paid in advance if you work for an employer like them as otherwise you might just find yourself staying on longer than you want in the hopes of getting what you're already owed
PW,
How can Bristow standards possibly fall lower? I heard they were pretty much at rock bottom already. It's obviously not the company which I left all those years ago. In those days the management was pretty dreadful (which is why I left) but at least we had standards. I observed the decline until I was forced into miserable retirement.
Sunny is a very nice gentleman.....hope he says the same of me having lost his license for him once upon a time. Actually it was El Toro that lost the license for him....who was the NCAA to tell the Bull what to do?
Yes, RS and RC have both left and are going to work in Australia. They're just following the latest trend after a good pay rise in Austtralia and a shortage of suitably qualified pilots there.
I'd believe the EC225's coming when they actually arrive in Nigeria - after all the ferry crews have already been to France once and been sent home before leaving. There's still a lot of speculation as to what may happen between CHC and Aero on the RW side, but apparently no final decisions have been made yet. My own feeling is that the two companies will split, as they have on the FW side and if I were a Canadian living in Canada now, unless I was looking to change and become non-resident, I'd be actively pursuing other vacancies within CHC Global.
As for Bristow, their standards will not improve. They have too many unhappy people with low morale looking for something and when their pay review is announced and they lose their present CLA cash payments, more of them will continue to drift away and be replaced by people who, no matter how willing, don't have the experience of living or working in Nigeria . It won't be a case of last one leaving turn out the lights, but more of, 'does anyone here know how to restart the generator so we can turn on the lights?'.
There's a text message doing the rounds at the moment;
A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company (Ford) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both teams practised long and hard to reach peak performance before the race, but on the big day the Japanese won by a mile.
The Americans very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for their crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action. Their conclusion was that the Japanese had 8 people paddling and one person steering, while the Americans had 8 people steering and one person paddling. Feeling a deeper study was in order, the American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion. The consultants advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat while not enough people were paddling. Not sure of how to utilze that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganised to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager. They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 1 person paddling the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the 'Rowing Team Quality First Programme' with meetings, dinners and free pens for the paddler. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices, and bonuses.
The following year the Japanese won by 2 miles.
Humiliated, the American management laid off the paddler for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles and cancelled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses and the next year's racing team was outsourced - to India.
Sadly, THE END
Here's something else to think about. Ford has spent the last 30 years moving all its factories out of the US, claiming they can't make money paying American wages. Toyota has spent the last 30 years building more than a dozen plants in the US. According to the last quarter's results Toyota made $4 billion profit, while Ford racked up $9 billion in losses. Ford folk are still scratching their heads. If this weren't true, it might be funny.
Sound like any other American company in Nigeria you know?
VIH wins Angola helicopter contract
Victoria firm to help African country with election
Bruce Constantineau, Vancouver Sun
Published: Thursday, August 21, 2008
Victoria-based VIH Helicopters Ltd. has won a six-month, multi-million-dollar contract to help Angola hold its first national elections in 16 years.
Six VIH helicopters will be used for pre-election and post-election transportation work in the southwestern African nation, where elections will take place on Sept. 5.
VIH operations manager Corey Taylor said the helicopters will be used to fly international observers throughout the country and to help set up polling booths before the election. Some helicopters will be used as mobile polling stations during the election, flying to remote communities and offshore oil rigs.
Taylor said the contract also calls for the helicopters to provide a kind of national transit service after the election because many roads are impassable and need repairs.
The six VIH helicopters will be part of an international contingent of 30 copters under contract to a private company working for the Angolan government.
Despite Angola's history of civil war and political violence, Taylor said VIH has been assured the work will be no more dangerous than working in Canada.
"There's unrest in some areas of Angola, but we're not going anywhere where we think there's potential for violence," he said in an interview. "We certainly don't expect to have any bullets flying at the helicopters or anything like that. Otherwise, we wouldn't do it."
Taylor said a VIH helicopter compound in Sudan was hit by a mortar round a few years ago.
"We pulled the plug instantly on that contract," he said. "We have civilian crews and nobody is interested in that type of thing."
VIH is sending two Sikorsky S-92s, two Sikorsky S-61s, a Bell 212 and a Eurocopter EC135. Taylor said it costs about $1.4 million to transport three or four helicopters from Canada to Angola on a Russian Antonov transport plane.
Bell 412 Crew wanted
Standards Will Fall Even Lower
. As has been said by numerous people, although the money in other places may be less, it's not much less and the management surely can't be any worse than the non-existent management in CHC or Bristow. I forecast that even Caverton will benefit from all this. I wonder how many other people, like me, are just waiting for confirmation of other offers before making the decision to quit? I'll still keep an eye on the place after I've gone, but only so that I can see that it's not likely to improve any time in the medium term. Bristow and CHC will both still have many people wanting to come out here, but that just means that the standards, which have already dropped to an all time low will dip further as new crews with no experience of the Nigerian dimension arrive - and who's going to train them 
Something's in the Wind - A Coup?
. I remember back in the days of Alan Bristow where Bristow had a real good name. Now it's just another garbage GOM company trying to cash in on the Bristow name. Guess what guys - it ain't working. You've fooled nobody. Go on back to your homes guys and get a life. I did it years back and I've never once regretted it because my quality of life is now so much better than when I was touring.
Join the best....Haha
). This will enable you to retire and as a result of spending more time with your athletic young inamorata you will soon croak 
. It won't be a case of last one leaving turn out the lights, but more of, 'does anyone here know how to restart the generator so we can turn on the lights?'. 
Management and Restructuring
Linear Mode
