Problems of flying in the Middle East. Advice sought

[outhouse]

As a professional rotary wing pilot and trainer working in the Middle East I would like to see some interesting and helpful feedback from similar professionals. We are all experiencing I suspect similar problems and frustrating examples of locally (to us) induced interferences that could affect our professional approach to the responsibility’s that we are expected to exercise on a daily basis. How do we cope and continue to maintain our professional standards and maintain a job. The daily challenges that are ever before us are not unique so how do you manage.
This forum allows us to communicate and exchange these common experiences so how about it?

[Thomas coupling]

........................................?

[SASless]

Sorry....lost me on that one as well?


Management demands conflicting with professional pilots' judgment, pressure being put on pilots to do things which in their professional judgment are unacceptable etc.

outhouse, a professional pilot and trainer, suggests it might be more difficult to cope with such demands in the Middle East culture, and asks fellow professionals with experience of working there:

How do we cope and continue to maintain our professional standards and keep our job?

Heliport

[flyer43]

Methinks he might mean the difference between applying training standards as they should be, as compared to the results which are sometimes expected by local management.....
If a training captain is applying the correct standards but is being pressured towards easing such standards, he should try to ensure that whoever is applying such pressure understands what the requirements are and what the consequences of not applying then correctly could be. If that doesn't work and he believes that safety us being compromised, he should present his case to the local authority.
In either case, the result could well be the same - look for a new job elsewhere. However, you should always ensure that you are not mixing concerns about capability with personality conflicts.....

[SASless]

Oh I have travelled these trails before....and full of pot holes, rocks, and mudholes they are. The Highwaymen and Desparadoes will dry gulch, back shoot, and ambush you in an instant. Make like a crab boys...keep your eyes open and your claws ready to parry the sudden blow....hopefully the wound will only be slight when it lands.

Rule One...They do not want to hear what you have to say...no matter how many times They say they value your opinion. The unwritten rule is show up for work on time...and do not argue with the Chief Pilot.

Rule Two...They know better or They would not be in the position of authority They are in. The concept that They got there by other than cream rising to the top is not something They care about beyond They being at the top.

Rule Three...Unless you set a finite goal for yourself before taking the King's Shilling and stick to it.....and leave upon reaching it it....you are headed down the grease covered slope. Only Gravity and surface friction controls your rate of slide.

Rule Four...They do not care about how many people like you come and go...so long as you go quietly....if you are not quiet....you shall surely go.

Rule Five....You have to be alive to enjoy the fruits of your labor such as they might be...at some point it is time to submit a homemade copy of Johnny Paychecks most famous song...."Take This Job and Shove It! ( I ain't working here no more!)".

Rule Six....They will not speak highly of you after you leave...for They are right or They would not still be there . Therefore you are wrong for leaving and They are right for still being there.

Word of advice...for those who remain for long periods of time in these kinds of places....remember the frog in the boiling water concept.

Throw a frog into a roiling boil of water and he will hope out in a flash without being burned. Put him into a nice cool pot of water and ignite the gas ring....and in time you will have a boiled frog.

[VTA]

Hey SASless,
You are totally, absolutly, positivley, 100% correct....You must be watching me!!!! I'm close to rule#5....

[Granny]

If you cant stand the heat get out the kitchen

[SHortshaft]

Perhaps it is an issue that is not just confined to the Middle East.

There are a couple of thoughts that I use to get me through the day:

1. If it was easy I wouldn't be here! Somebody else would be doing it!

2. The role of leadership is to try and get 'the herd' running roughly west! If you can achieve a small improvement each day, no matter how small, IMHO, you are doing your job as a professional pilot and a trainer. The downside is that you just won't be around to see them reach the standards you would like them to be at today.

[SASless]

I do not consider my rules to be directed to the Middle East....or at any particular operator or operation. Sometimes it is the local executive mafia that is the problem....and can vary by who sits in the throne at the time....sometimes it comes from way on high. "They" can be formed by any combination of events...birth, heritage, training, degree of sobriety, dementia...whatever.....the key is to recognize when "They" have occurred.

Hawking talks of a unique "singularity" that brought mankind to where we are today.....and similar "singularities" occur in our industry and can affect the path we travel.

Just as space travel has its time warp and black holes....helicopter pilots must remain aware of similar phenomenon.:E

[Lu Zuckerman]

To: outhouse

What you say is especially true if you are training locals and have to deal with the religious aspects as their mindset makes it very difficult to instill CRM as a part of the training program. It becomes worse if locals are managing the program. I would strongly suggest that you address your question to those pilots on this forum that worked in the training of Imperial Iranian Army helicopter pilots. They ran into every conceivable problem in the training of the IAA pilots including students going directly to the commanding general to complain about their training pilot with no thought of chain of command. These pilots (IAA) had no concept of safety as they firmly believed if they crashed it was ALLAHS will. On one occasion the IIA training flight performed a flyby for the Shah. For whatever reason one of the AB-206s fell out of formation and crashed. A second AB-206 broke formation and followed the first aircraft down until it crashed and exploded causing the second aircraft to crash. A third AB-206 followed the first two and was similarly effected.

I didn’t train pilots but I was responsible for all of the field maintenance and overhaul and I was faced with similar problems relative to the maintenance performed by IIA mechanics.

:E :E

[Recuperator]

Granny

Have you worked in the Middle East before or have you managed to avoid the axe over the years?

I must admit, that I have enjoyed working in the Middle East, sometimes more than other times and was fortunate never to got fired, but did observe several “issues” as mentioned below.

I somehow managed to just avoid some of these issues, some of the time, but as for working for helicopter companies in the Middle East, SASless pretty much hit the nail on the head.

Granny, I know a couple of your countrymen that acted in the most professional manner at Xxxx Helicopters, only to have resigned or being fired for various ridiculous reason's.

An incident comes to mind. A chief training captain was reported for being a "racist" because of his high standards and values and for not believing a certain local individual had what it took to be a captain on a Bell 412, flying offshore missions for several oil companies in the Gulf. Needless to say management had the individual removed from the company and the local was made a captain.

There are many stories about people being dismissed, fairly or unfairly, depending on which side of the fence you were standing, or if you were precariously perched on top of it…

The sad thing is that there are some expat managers in the Middle East at this stage that do not have the guts to stand up for their pilots or the rules as laid down either by SOP’s or Aviation Authorities, obviously in fear of losing their own jobs.

Unfortunately, due to this culture of fear in the Middle East, serious issues including backing of pilots, flying standards, duty hours and flight safety, takes a back seat due to managerial and cultural influences.

Also remember, saving face is what it is all about for the locals in the Middle East. The only head that will roll, is that of the expat, that was closest to the screw up that happened. The local or locals, including the Indian mafia, will come out smelling like roses and the expat will be out of there so fast, he'd look like a headless chicken, while the chickens in management will just sit on their perches, as mentioned before, and watch the proceedings from a distance.

I ask you, how can you work efficiently as a pilot, maintain your own professional standards and look yourself in the eyes every morning, for a meagre "tax free salary", especially when you don't know whether you will still have a job in the evening, should something go wrong or at the whim of how the local manager is feeling that day?

If you want to work in the Middle East, you are going to have to accept that it is their country, their Civil Aviation Authority, their helicopter organisation, their culture and belief’s, their pilot’s and managers, their rules and that you are an expendable infidel, there to sing and dance, quietly to their tune, only one step up from being a slave as you are paid a meagre “tax free salary”.

It’s not a question of “ If you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen”, it’s a question of trying not to be in the wrong place at the right time, albeit in the kitchen or the cockpit, the art of a fine balancing act, which some expats with brown noses, do better than others.

Stick to those rules, accept their standards and / or disregard your own standards, keep your mouth shut and you will be fine, or the alternative is what I did, move on, even if you did enjoy the social lifestyle.

All as simple as that.:hmm: