Bristow Photos

[Dave Ed]

Aberdeen

Aberdeen 1






I have probably posted a few of these 31 pics before but this will add all the straggler pics and a few people.
As usual the info is a bit dated and things have probably moved on a bit!





At its peak the Bristows base at Aberdeen was probably the largest commercial helicopter operation in the world.
Located on the East coast of Scotland, Aberdeen airport was chosen as a base to serve the booming North Sea oil fields, and if my sources are correct, the first flight took place on July 26th 1967 with a Whirlwind WS55 flight out to the Hambros rig.


This picture was probably taken around 1990 and shows the three main hangar complexes and terminal building. Being based at a commercial airport enables offshore workers to fly in from their home airports and transfer smoothly to the rig flights.








28 aircraft can be counted in this photo with the A.S.332L Super Pumas dominating the proceedings with a fleet of approx. 22 in 1989. Many modifications were made to the Super Pumas to bring them up to the Bristow standard and this led to the nickname "Tiger" being adopted.







Again a "Tiger" trying to hog the limelight with a few S61Ns and a S76 in the background. Over the years most of the larger Bristows types have operated out of Aberdeen i.e. ( Whirlwinds, Wessex, Puma, Bell 212, Bell 214ST, S61, S76 and Tigers ).





The Bristow terminal is more akin to a regular airport departure lounge with check-in desks, snack bar, a news stand, security and custom services, offices for customer representatives and video lounges ( for safety briefings ) and in 1989 was handling 40,000 passengers every month.




At its peak, approximately, 45 medium / large helicopters were operating out of Aberdeen averaging 50 - 60 flights per day and a record of 86 flights one Christmas.
The installation shown is a typical North sea rig served by the Bristow fleet and when the "Tigers" were introduced a direct flight to the Magnus oil field was made possible creating a leg of approx. 280nm.






This map shows the U.K. sector Northern North Sea oil fields the majority of which were served from Aberdeen by one of the two big helicopter operators, Bristows and Scotia.






Inevitably, as exploration slowed, offshore shift changes reduced, new installations with fewer workers etc. etc., the requirement for aircraft reduced, which has led to the "down-sizing" of the operation. It is unlikely there will ever be a base as busy as Aberdeen was in its heyday and maintaining such a high quality service in the face of some of the most hostile weather conditions in the offshore arena is a credit to the staff that have manned the base over the last 40+ years.