Why not? What small minds we have!!!!! Good job people thought differently when it came to that small thing called the civil rights movement!!!!!!!!!!!!
and all some want to do is ban night flying offshore as it (as statistics prove) is way more dangerous than day flying!!!!!!!!
Off topic - Oh that is good!!!
I cannot quite see the correlation here between the black civil rights movement and night flying!! I am sure they were fighting for the advancement of rights and improving opportunity - not banning things! Gave me a grin anyway!
On topic - if we want to be narrow minded then we ban night flying. Is this the correct approach? We can all have opinions on this. We can also accept that our job involves night flying - our customer relies on it. I have done over 30 night decks already this week, and I am quite sure the banning of night flying would have a fairly severe impact on the industry in which we work. We SUPPORT the oil and gas industry, not the other way round. They have a list of requirements and our companies must try and achieve in the safest manner. The oil companies can accept the risk - FACT. Money talks.
Secondly - if we ban night flying, I think many of us will be looking for new jobs, and it certainly will not be good for the industry in general.
Thirdly - where do you draw the line? Do we only fly around day vfr. As mentioned before - 200' cloud base, 1nm viz, no wind is far worse than a good night. So do we ban this as well?
If you dont like flying at night, and you think your operation is unsafe, then speak to the CP, FSO, training manager and try and get things changed. You may have already done this. All of people I work with are happy with our operation and flying at night and we do a lot of it. There are plenty of ways to make night flying safe. I will completely agree that it is more dangerous than day flying, and needs to be more regulated, but I also think it can be done safely with the right aircraft types, and good procedures and the correct limitations. Flying an ARA to a deck at night is not too different to flying one in really !!!!ty weather, especially with a good AP with level off at mdh. It could be, for example, that we should reduce the number of decks landings in a night, and make each one an ARA when the viz is less than 10k if that helps standardize.
Both the oil companies and our own organizations do need to commit to new equipment though and fork up the cash to enhance our safety.
So - if we want to talk about being open minded, we need to really look outside at the big picture, and not just look at one option. Sure consider it, but look at all others as well. If we cannot get the required technology/aircraft types/safety equipment, then perhaps night flying should be re-examined. See how other operators deal with the problem.