Normal Ops in 2017 ….S-92 with 2 aux tanks Offshore St. John’s NL ….quite often 280nm directly eastbound from the continent out to the fogbank the rig is hiding under 2 approaches (nothing seen) back to St. John’s our onshore alternate. Rinse, repeat. 560 NM plus the 2 approaches plus one at St. John’s so +- 600 NM . Farthest I ever saw the rig was 292nm. due to ice.
Good way to gather some ice. for the post flight martini. The deice on 92 worked very well. …we were usually clear of cloud at 7500.
Usually a “boomerang” ( no offshore landing) was 4.5 +-
Sometimes, not often, as our ILS limits in YYJ were 600 RVR and 100’, we had to hold Gander as our onshore alternate. In that case ….Most fuel I remember starting with was 6350 lbs. ( we never went to the alternate when I was there nor did I speak to anyone else who had. ) …..come to think of it I don’t recall ever going to an IFR alternate in my career except in the sim.
We were told it was ( 2017 ) the longest regular offshore oil support flight in the world…our aching butts, backs and necks agreed. Even if we did land on the rig we did a rotors running turn around and refuel. So if you were PF then by the time you shut down back in St.John’s you had been in the seat 5+ hrs. Of course we wore full immersion suits year round.
Note on WX
We often had low level Jetstream in St. John’s so we saw some impressive ground speeds outbound. we cruised about 145 TAS at 7500 ft so 200++ GS was not uncommon. Groundspeed coming home was slow but we cruised as low as possible to “get under the wind” 1500+- or even lower if we were VMC. The rig was situated close to the Gulf Stream / Labrador current hence all the fog. Saw lots of bergs, whales etc. St John’s wx could be extremely variable. Don’t like it? Wait 15 minutes. The TAF could be long and hilarious. As for the METAR “ Oh look Bob —-wind 270 at 30G45 vis 1/8 in fog VV200” ….20 minutes later … Hey Bob Special now they got wind 24 at 5 vis 10 + clouds 2000 SCT 10000 BKN. Fun daze.