Tally,
Telling the truth is not calling names...the hijackings occurred, the shooting occurred, the pilots were wounded, the tribal fighting occurs frequently, the shoddy working conditions are real, the poor pay is real, and the turnover rate for pilots in the helicopter side is real......a few of the operators are still in the belief that helicopter pilots are still a dime a dozen and thus the poor conditions continue. When the situation gets so bad that they can no longer crew the operations then the changes will come.
Until then, those that fear for their job and continue to moan in the bar at night and not take their concerns to the front office merely cause a delay in the cure. As long as pilots will let their personal and professional standards slip then the working conditions in Nigeria and other less than nice places will persist. Sometimes the source of the problem is staring in the mirror at you, as is the cure.
I guess I can fly shoddy aircraft, wear gray once white shirts....carry a red and white plastic Nigerian shopping bag as a flight case, drink myself to oblivion each night, keep my bush wife for the time in country and make do. Some of us just are not prepared to do so.
We watched the living standard go south for the helicopter pilots while the fixed wing pilot's living standards, pay, and roster improved. Its one thing to sit there in relative comfort, with safe shopping available, and a nice English style pub inside the compound and tell the helicopter pilots to shut up and carry on.
Small things like the fixed wing pilots complaining about helicopter pilots riding in the cockpit jump seat and thus cutting the one reasonably sure method of getting to Lagos doesn't help matters either. To cap that....Bristow and Shell agree to let management staff to ride in the jump seat but not the pilots and engineers that are expected to make lifesaving flights in trashy aircraft in bad weather. Talk about professional respect and courtesy!
Take your cheeky butt down to the delta and live like a helicopter pilot for seven weeks....then tell us about it! Hotbed each time you come in...maybe even change houses each time as well. Be dumped at your accomodation to find no bedding, no cutlery, no towels.....no pillows.....and when you tell the company they give you some glib answer and show no concern about providing an adequate place to sleep much less enjoy being in. Try to go shopping without transport....while working almost every day. Sit in a pilots waiting room which is a 40 foot container, with seating for five....despite 20 people at a time using the facilities.....the list of insults goes on and on! No....until you have walked in those shoes....don't try to tell the other side how to make it what you can. There is a minimum standard that a professional is entitled to while plying his trade.
Yes...life is great in the Delta!
