Story time.
Having registered a complaint about being paid less than some of the less senior pilots to me, following the controversial introduction overnight of the 'North Sea Commander's Allowance', I received a phone call from management asking me if I would go back to Duri on detachment following the loss of a 212 (PK-HCI?) with the crew (Pilot & Loadmaster) being pulled from the burning wreck by the passengers, and recovering from their injuries.
A replacement 212 was flown up from Australia, and was mainly used on the VIP trips, although got involved in the Muara Tembesi detachment as well.
Refuelling VH-BEL on a VIP trip with Mike Moran.
VH-BEL in action at Muara Tembesi.
One of the best Bristow inventions. A convex cargo mirror, where the focal point of the mirror was the mounting point, thus the mirror was free to vibrate but the picture remained steady. Used not just on the entire Bell fleet, but other types as well.
VIP Training Captain for your flight, Mike Moran.
Only other expat Line Pilot at Duri (rest were all National Pilots except Mike & Managing Pilot - Bill Vaughn), Richard Hambly.
Another VIP flight, this time to a Seismic location with a packed lunch, and your Captain Kabiyono (?).
Another story.
I flew down to Muara Tembesi with Mike Moran I think in VH-BEL. The prevailing winds were from the west, so a tailwind meant this flight was easily achievable with basic tanks.
I then had to fly PK-HCF back to Duri, via Rumbai at the end of the detachment. Of course we now had a headwind, and basic tanks would only get us to Rumbai. We had to take most of the engineering equipment, and had a Caltex Manager to drop at Rumbai. So we fitted the 4 man seat facing forward, manager was happy that his emergency exit was out my cockpit door, and we filled the 212 up to 11,200lbs. Take-off can best be described as Group Z, and I arrived at Rumbai with required minimum reserve.
Jess Bermudez and our Loadmaster (forgotten his name?) en-route to Rumbai.
At Rumbai I changed seats and handed control over to our Training Captain, Nasir.
But with no fuel at Rumbai, and not enough to reach Duri or Pekanbaru, what did we do? Answer we carried our own and with both engines back at idle the Zenith pump managed to keep ahead of the engines.
And a happy ending. At the end of my detachment, the accident crew had both arrived back at work. To get the Loadmaster Panji's confidence back they held a winch training exercise in VH-BEL.
