When the operation was being moved from the Eket Airstrip to the Q.I.T. the gantry was moved from the old to the new hangar ahead of the actual move. Here we see the equipment that Bell Helicopters provided to allow you to carry out maintenance without the necessary ground facilities. Barry Pettitt supervising an engine removal.
Those of you that have or are working in Nigeria will be aware of the many religions & cultures associated with this large nation. The refueller here on the Idaho felt that I was stealing his 'soul' (apologies if that is the wrong expression) by taking this photo of 5N-AJX with Colin Paterson in command. On my next rotation I became friends with the refueller again when I presented him with a copy of this photo and returned his 'soul'.
With a country that rarely had any serviceable national SAR helicopters, the Bristow group looked after its own SAR, with Eket normally having 2 winches. As well as keeping a pool of qualified pilots, we were very fortunate in having the dedication of some engineers in providing winch operators & winch men. Part of the training for new winch operators started with Dry Winching, and here we see Ron Varney (in his shorts) being coached by Barry Pettitt on how to get the hook exactly onto that clump of grass, and again it looks like Colin Paterson at the helm.
A German company, MAN Ferrostaal AG, were building a huge Aluminium Plant, with Deep Water Port, Township and Hospital, at Ikot Abasi to the west of Eket. We were asked to do a site survey of the 2 helipads they were building and here is 5N-BHM undertaking that task. With the help of Jeff Lee, and the kind assistance of the Chief Engineer & Chief Pilot, we set up the famous 'Cold Meat' run as we had befriended the German butcher on this project, and managed to persuade several pilots & engineers to undertake this run, as there was free beer in the bar on arrival (even Bristow put on a barrel!).
5N-AJS outside the old airstrip hangar.
5N-AYX outside the old hangar. This was an FAA IFR 212, which as well as having the collective/yaw mixing unit, also had a collective/cyclic mixing unit as well. After a couple of rather exciting arrivals during Hydraulics 1 off landings we stopped using this one for Hyd 1 failures on VMC checks. It was later converted to UK IFR standard once a design scheme had been approved, and of course we could afford to do it.
I got a good laugh from the Mobil dispatchers when the guest helicopter in these last 2 shots turned up on the hotspot and I announced that we were waiting to take 11 to the Idaho. It is actually a Graupner Bell 212 R/C helicopter which was later to be painted in the Bristow 'Coastguard' scheme courtesy of a Check 2 and the artistic skills of
Thridle Op Des.
It was always a pleasure to conduct air tests with our engineers as some of them were very good at flying, and I got to practise my instructional technique. Here is Barry Pettitt enjoying himself.
Bristow Bar, Esa Akpan, Eket with 'The Young Ones'. Andy 'The Black Destroyer' Walters, Andy 'Deputy Deputy Chief Pilot' Hudson, Graham 'Another Deputy Deputy Chief Pilot' Walker, Richard 'Sheep' Evans, Randy Bartlett & Ralph Chappell. Just above Ralph's head you can see a photo of the late 'Tigger' (
RIP) who was the famous base dog. At his end we laid him to rest offshore so that he would not end up as a '504' dish downtown (local delicacy was to eat dogs that had been run over - 504 was a type of Peugeot car available then).
Horse racing night at the Mobil Compound. I see Andy Hudson in Lane 2 on the right. Anybody recognise any of the others?
We held a morning beach barbecue in the Mobil Beach facility, and I was part of the advance party that went down to set up the barbecue the night before, sleeping in the open under the stars. Here are my partners that night Stacey Shilling & Mick Rennie (?).
Cannot remember what the barbecue was for, but here is Ron Varney (who had woken us up in the wee hours as he tried to find us in the dark on his Triumph Tiger 750), Mick Rennie, John 'the Greek' xxx (?), Fred Layton, Stacey Shilling, and Ed 'Easy Ed' Doucette.