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Old 10th Jun 2016, 21:55
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HughMartin

Howcanwebeexpectedtoflylikeeagles
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Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Scotland
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There are those who have and those who are going to to.

In my career, only one wrong deck landing and one close one.

1. Detached at short notice to southern North Sea in a Bolkow 105. Sent out to the Viking field with one "mother" manned platform and god knows how many unmanned satellites labelled A to X (or something similar). Was sent over to a satellite to pick up a work team on a murky evening, landed and waited. No one appeared so called the mother platform and said "I'm on the X and no one has appeared". "Standby" was the reply followed shortly thereafter by "your passengers are on the X and there is no helicopter there". Embarrassed pause while I tried to re-read the platform name through the the layers of guano. "Oops, will be there in two minutes". Laughs all round, no big deal.

2. Departed from Aberdeen on a two hour flight to a stationary small ship with a bow helideck. Last thing we did before departure was get an updated position and fed it into the FMS. Arrived on location at dusk with little light, vessel exactly on location according to the FMS, exactly the right shape according to the rig plate, heading as previously described, couldn't see any name due to light conditions etc but helideck landing clearance obtained and as we came over the helideck I noticed a bow mounted mast protruding above the helideck perilously close to the helideck. As PNF, I called "go around". Subsequent radio calls established that during the time since our departure from Aberdeen the ship we were supposed to go to had swapped position with her sister ship. Our correct destination was now about 20 miles from her originally reported position.

In a previous life as a Chief Pilot, I once had to write a letter of defence to a major oil company aviation manager (who I will call ********) for one of my pilots who had a wrong deck landing when flying for this oil company. This manager, who had previously been a Bristow pilot for many years, said he wasn't accepting my letter and that he "wanted blood". Well, he never got blood and when I subsequently recounted this story to a senior Bristow pilot who had known him, I was told that "********" had been involved in many similar events during his time with Bristow and would probably have been sacked had he not left.
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