Super Puma, China. The engineers decided to remove the white plastic shroud that surrounds the rotor mast and sits just above the gearbox, due to a small crack. OK, you guys know what should be there and what isn't needed.
45 minutes later I was about 60 miles south of Kai Tak when my main gearbox pressure started to twitch then oscillate. The rig was about 25 miles away when the main pressure fell to zero, the standby pressure was firm. Until that started oscillating and then fell to zero with about 8 miles to run
. We landed on the rig (South Sea Driller) and discovered that the aircraft was really shiny, very smart.
The shroud which was so dispensable by common agreement of the engineers, prevents the main gearbox oil from being syphoned up the outer part of the mast. That cost them one or three Carlsbergs.
The other pilot was Chinese, he could not speak English, so we had an interpreter sitting in the jump seat, standard practice over there at that period. His main contribution to this event was to point at the guage and say "Ohhhhhhhhhh!"
