Dear Adam,
Between Blighty and Down Under (and let's not forget Africa!) ther are lots of Countries inhabited by poor people who have never heard of Political Correctness or the USA SEC or Codes of Business Integrity. They work at Airports for Immigration, Customs, ATC Clearances, Fire Services, Air Traffic Controllers etc. for a very small salary. They don't have very much in life in the way of material things but they do have POWER!
They decide when you can leave!
If your Company fills your pockets with non accountable used notes, it can be possible to achieve the 6 - 8 hours a day as you speculate by "taking care" of all these people but even in the halcyon days when this was the norm, it still wasn't unusual to get "trapped in Tamanrasset" or "banged up in Bombay" until your onward clearance was miraculously "found" or the Fire Service decided that they would work on the Public Holiday tomorrow (declared by them!) if you paid their overtime.
Amazingly very few Helicopters seem to go U/S in these awful places - that always seems to happen in Bangkok or Bali.
I would agree that 30 days seems a bit excessive but we must remember that these North Sea boys will need lots of OFF days if not a small leave if they are to remain compliant with CAP 437
