What I'm saying is throwing more money at training and fancy helicopters might not be the solution....the Op I gave example too is perfectly safe, not because we have a $15m+ helicopter with all the bells and whilstles and simulator trained crews and the rest of it. Because we don't. We have completely busted arse helicopters (by International standards), very limited on-going training (I never did an off-shore check in 3 years), and no simulator training at all, not for anybody. We don't have check-lists and manuals and documentation of Encyclopedia Britannia proportions. Everything is boiled down to the important stuff, plus the not-so-important mandatory regulatory stuff which gets kept on the shelf for when the auditors come once per year.
The Oil Company (client) is perfectly happy, for $150k/month + $1k/flight hour + fuel they get 24/7 IFR helicopter with experienced crew and maintenance support. And the bears are happy, despite getting soaking wet when it rains because the cabin leaks like a sieve, and despite not having much fresh air because the cabin ventilation is disconnected to help keep some of the rain out. Fortunately they don't need to wear the Michelin Man suits because the water is a comfortable 28+ degreesC all year round. The pilots do their very best at keeping them out of the water, because the liferaft probably doesn't work and the sharks will get you for sure if you went for a swim.
What works for us is having 2 very experienced Captains up the front, where if the guy driving did something hair-brain or through temporary loss of attention the other surely would whack him, and a very simple helicopter with nothing too complicated to think about. Total attention can be focused on finding a hole in the scud and then creep home up the river in sight of at least 1 river bank without any complicated distractions like coupled auto-pilots and other things. And of course just as important is the guy who's swinging the spanner back in the hangar totally knows his stuff, despite probably coming off the end of an 18 hour shift after clearing any maintenance snags encountered during the day.
And let me just say the Op mentioned here is not the Op mentioned by BA above. But I did learn the ropes at said Op mentioned by BA and I am very appreciative for that. I learned a lot. And I have him and about 15 or so other Captains to thank for those lessons learned.
Last edited by gulliBell; 13th Sep 2013 at 03:55.