TIGO in Brazil 4
As I touched on earlier, it would be almost impossible to set up a new overseas helicopter operation, in a remote location, without the knowledge and help of the local agent / population. Over the last 60 years or so, many of the local work force have gone on to have lengthy careers with Bristows especially in places such as Nigeria and Malaysia and of course many Bristow staff eventually settled down with local girls.
Even though this Brazil BP operation was relatively short lived we got to work with, socialise with and know a great bunch of people from the guys at the sharp end flying and maintaining the aircraft all the way down to the great Edmilson (labourer, odd job man, ran closest bar to work … a many of many hats.) We needed people to drive us, house us, feed us, sort out the bureaucracy, find us trucks with cranes when we needed them and a hundred other things that need sorting out behind the scenes.
There were three groups of people that were directly involved in getting the job done:-
The first consisted of the people responsible for looking after the Super Puma. Me and Ian (avionic engs.) Guy or Kev (A and C) and Grahame and Neil??? (Pilots) - all British.
The second part of the team were all Brazilian, worked for Bristow's partner (Aeroleo) and looked after the back-up helicopter (S61), flew as second crew on the Tiger and also organised the passengers and freight. This group also consisted of engineers, pilots and dispatchers - about 7 of them at any one time.
They had two crews and rotated every couple of weeks back to the main bases a lot further south!! And like their English work colleagues, they also suffered from culture shock finding things as difficult as us at times! They were mostly good fun to work with, some more serious than others, some more faithful to their partners than others!!!
The third part of the team were the locally employed people hired by Beckman - "Mr Organiser". He was the guy to get things done!
I suppose we had about 5 or 6 local people working with us - all good people 
Beckman organised transport, drivers, cranes etc etc. Without him we would have been doomed from the start. I am not sure I would ever trust him to look after my daughter though !! (if I had one)
All the above either lived or stayed in Amapa town so we often socialised together as far as the language barrier would allow.
Some of the Brazilian crew "socialised" a little too closely!!
So, a few pics of some of the team........
Me and Guy also in this one.
