GoM safety vs North Sea
Rotordog (mainly!)
I operate a 332L Super Puma on the North Sea and have done now for 15 out of the last 18 years. 3 of the other years were spent flying single pilot IFR in a Bo105, based on an offshore platform in the northern North Sea, on a week on /week off routine, with the other two as an EMS pilot, again in Bo105s. So I have seen both sides of single pilot/ twin pilot operations. Yes, all of my North Sea time has been in twin engine machines. I did fly singles in the Army (Gazelles and Alouettes).
Now a question: how many ditchings/ accidents have occured in the North Sea during my 18 years? I think we have had FOUR in the UK sector. How many have we seen in the GoM THIS YEAR?
If you are a GoM pilot, I say to you and all GoMers, as SASLess did earlier on this thread,
WHY DO YOU ACCEPT THIS STATE OF AFFAIRS!
Do you put such a low value on your lives?
For f**k's sake, stop arguing about whether singles are better than twins or worrying about the poor oil companies' and heli operators' profit margins! They will NOT go out of business!
Start thinking about yourselves and your families and your passengers and their families. YOU have a duty of care for yourself, so why not start to do something about it!
bondu (totally bemused UK pilot!!)
North Sea Safety
I forgot to say, we North Sea guys are not totally happy with the current safety regime over here. We have a system called the Dacon scoop, which is supposedly capable of picking me out of the sea in sea states of 6 metres or more (thats 20 feet upwards for you guys!). The trials carried out some years ago, by specially trained Danish Navy divers, could only demonstrate a maximum capability of 4.8 metres! Currently, the maximum sea state for North Sea operations to cease is anything from 6 to 8 meters: determined, not by the CAA, Health and Safety or the helicopter operators, but by the OIL companies!!!
I was once tasked to take 18 pax to the Magnus platform, 290 nm north of Aberdeen, but the sea state was over 8 metres. The oil company was informed that the sea state was out of limits. OK, they said, flight cancelled. The sea state remained high (above 8 metres) for two more days. On the third day, I was tasked to take freight only to the Magnus, as the sea state was still too high for passenger flights!! I politely, (well not so politely, actually) refused! Obviously, the oil company, BP, did not think my life was worth as much as a passeger\'s.
All passengers on North Sea flights now have some form of rebreather system. Although trials were carried some EIGHT years ago on STASS, no pilots on the North Sea have STASS or anything similar yet. There are no plans to bring STASS in at present.
We still have problems with fast jet conflictions over certain parts of the North Sea. Concerns that still have not been fully addressed, THIRTY years after helicopters started flying to the installations. Yet another study has been set up to discuss the issue, but it will take a mid air collision, killing upto twenty people, before anything is actually done.
But we will continue to chip away at the complacency of the operators, the oil companies and the CAA until we resolve these and other issues.
bondu