Mama,
I managed to visit Cameroun for the first time recently. What a pleasant change from Nigeria!!
When I went to the airport in Douala I was struck by the complete difference between the 2 helicopter operations there. Heli Union have a nice, small hangar and operate a 365N and a 365C3. They seem to have a small staff and fly quite a lot. I'm told that they also do some of the maintenance on the Presidential helicopter.
Schreiner have a 365N3 which doesn't fly every day and a 365N which I'm told is on some kind of a contract with no crew, though it seems they sometimes end up flying both aircraft even though they have the crew for only one. They also have a Twin Otter based in Douala and a Dash 8 and 2 more Twin Otters in Tchad. Their hangar can only be described as a mess!! It looks like a Porsche 911 rear end and it can't possibly keep out the weather during rainy season. It seems that it leaks so much their offices there are unusable. They have a huge staff for such a small operation. I was told that they have an expat Managing Director, a pilot, who works 6/6 while his deputy, the GM (not a pilot) works 5/1 - wierd
. They also have an Operations Manager, deputy Operations manager, Chief Pilot, Administration Manager ( a French lady who is locally employed), Accountant (expat 5/1), Technical Manager, deputy Technical Manager, logistics controllers....... I can't imagine CHC will allow things to continue like that for long for just a couple of helicopters and a few fixed wing. I met one 'Indian', but almost everyone else seems to be a 'chief'. Has CHC made much difference to the operation there? I'm sure they must have visited already.