Mikila1A
I think the figures speak for themselves. 25 pilots left or were fired in 2001. The figure for this year is getting close to that. Even in a big helicopter company that's a lot of pilots from one base! This is how they work - they rule through fear. The fear that if you speak up, say anything, file an incident report, you'll eventually lose your job. I expect that there are guys there now reading this and frightened to say anything, even in favor of the company, in case it's discovered that they said something in public.
Most of the guys they have fired have ended up almost immediately getting jobs with other companies - quite a few of them that I know of, at much higher salaries.
Cal is a decent stand-up guy, but his power is strictly limited. There's no negotiation of contracts. Everyone is on the same contract (non-nationals that is) and the Chief Pilot is just the one who offers you the job. A lot of the guys who've been fired over the last few years don't even know the real reason why they were fired or who was really responsible for firing them.
There are only a few local pilots and they are on a different contract than the expat pilots. They're nice friendly guys.
As a line pilot you have no direct contact with ADMA, the company that operates most of the offshore areas. The day-to-day contact is through a lot of co-ordinators both onshore and offshore, so they take the hassle from the client. Other than that it's done by management and they nearly always do what the client wants. The way the performance figures are worked out offshore means that power margins are almost nil, the wellhead decks have numerous obstructions, but nobody wants to report this as being unsafe in case they lose their jobs.
There are a lot of Canadians, Australians and New Zealand pilots there and for them it's probably not a bad deal as the money is better than they'd get back home, though even some of the Canadians are now starting to leave. The work is not too hard and there is a lot of free time as a result of the night standby duties and 'rest days'. Don't expect to be able to see anything of the country though as a 'rest day' is just a 24 hour break between duties. There's talk of complying with the legislation which has now been in force for 4 months, but if they continue firing pilots and having them leave at the rate they have been for the last few years there's no way they'll get the number they need, except by actually starting to offer conversions to pilots not type-rated, or getting in people who do not have the necessary qualifications and training them - difficult given the low number of training captains they have for a company of that size. If you're looking at going there from Europe or the USA, the money is lousy, the accommodation is dirty, unhealthy and a terrible fire hazard (the 'van' which burned down some years ago was destroyed very fast) and the obstructions on and condition of the wellhead decks offshore would never be acceptable to any North American or European regulatory authority or pass an audit by a major western oil company.
