What Am I Missing?

[SASless]

Oil companies worldwide are making highest profits ever....in their history.

They are fat with cash and are seeking ways to invest those profits.

The Helicopter Industry has pledged itself to reduce accidents by 80%.

The FAA and NTSB amongst other groups are reviewing the way the Helicopter Industry is doing business particularly in regard to "Safety".

What are helicopter operators doing to use this period of economic boom within the oil industry...to improve their operations and working conditions? Are they raising rates...buying new aircraft and replacing ageing airframes, installing new technology, improving the safety climate, raising wages, providing more Simulator Training, doing more training, investing in improved infrastructure, buying remote site weather reporting equipment?

Or...are they still trying to undercut the competition and carry on the old ways by letting the oil companies chisel them down on rates and such?

Has your outfit done anything to improve your operation or gone after higher rates of return on new contracts? Has the Ad Hoc charter rates gone up in your area by any significant amount?

I bet your fuel costs have....the oil companies have no reluctance to raise rates when they can....why should our industry be any different?

[TheFlyingSquirrel]

Are you still flying the GOM Sassy ?

[SASless]

Never flown there....sat an interview and walked out when they described their pay and vacation scheme....and tried to convince me what a fine deal it was.

[brainiac]

My pound of flesh: The companies are so tight they refuse to pay top £ for decent management. They scare away the right people for the wrong reasons, and leave the arsekissers and inflated egos to stear. Hint: See the thread on company ethics :}
Ergo....pissing of the real people doing the job. Thereby loosing the only thing that could set X brand apart in the marketplace.....a flexible workforce.
Solution : Get REAL MANAGEMENT

[Hippolite]

SAS

Not entirely true. Bristow have "bought" or swapped 332Ls for EC 225s, that's an investment in "new" technology. Bristow are also getting EC155s to replace the 25 year old S76A+ aircraft on the Southern North Sea, that's also "new" technology. PHI has 6 S92s working in the GOM, that's a huge leap in technology compared with the 214ST, and ERA is dabbling with the AB139, again, a new technology aircraft although the jury still seems to be out as to how good it is.

The new generation aircraft will nautrally be taken up by the major operators first as their customers demand it and will almost pay for it!

As for the rest of the industry, what's old to Bristow and PHI is someone else's new pride of the fleet!!

HH

[SASless]

Hippo,

Any of those historically high profits gone for any of the things listed below?

Any investment in new ASOS weather reporting equipment offshore?

Any investment in replacing Single Engine aircraft with IFR Twins?

Any investment in dedicated SAR for Gulf Operations (remembering the primary USCG SAR unit is a surface vessel)?

Any investment in additional radio/digital comm gear for ATC communications?

Any investment in immersion suits for winter operations?

Single engine aircraft still out flying in high winds and rough seas?

Single Engine aircraft equipped with IF flying kit to include autopilots for use in IIMC events?

[Hippolite]

SAS

No argument from me there. The Single Engine thing is the GOM is driven by many of the smaller companies, not necessarily the major oil companies, although even Exxon and Shell still use single engine aircraft.

Having said that, Shell are probably moving towards EC135 type aircraft rather than single engine in the next couple of years.

Many of the things you mention (ASOS, better comms, better SAR) will only be driven by legislation and someone (FAA?) taking proper responsibility for an industry involving 600 aircraft operating in the GOM.

I agree the oil industry should be taking greater responsibility for being proactive, a jointly funded SAR S92 would be realtively cheap if the costs were shared.

A couple of years ago, one GOM operator tried to put 2x S76s into the GOM, one at each end and both medically equipped. However, while the interest was there, no company would sign up so the idea died.

The recent improvement in GOM safety statistics (2004 and 2005) will only serve to increase the complacency which exists in the GOM. Taditionally, profits are re distributed to stock holders and not used for the benfit of stake holders.....that's the problem!!

[SASless]

What gets invested into infrastructure is either an expense or captial investment and reduces profits. The savings those improvements create through the reduction in accidents and deaths/injuries generate future profits.

What value do the oil companies place upon a human life? Dollars alone or its intrinsic value that far exceeds mere dollars?

[Teefor Gage]

What gets invested into infrastructure is either an expense or captial investment and reduces profits. The savings those improvements create through the reduction in accidents and deaths/injuries generate future profits.


SASless, make up your mind what you really want. You accuse oil companies of little or no investment in new equipment etc, and when they do you castigate them for trying to increase the lining in their own pockets by devious means. Seems you are on to a winner whatever happens.........??

You are obviously referring mainly to GOM operations in your second "speech" 'cos "all of the above" have been invested in North Sea operations over recent years. As for the standards to which helicopters are operated anywhere. That should have nothing to do with the customer, be it oil industry or any industry, the operators should set the standards and provide their customers with safe and efficient services.

Why dont you use some of the energy that you expend on PPRUNE to get operators together and improve things for everybody. Gripeing on this channel is easy, getting real results is the challenge. Are you up to it??

[SASless]

Tee,

You ever try to push a string?

Pulling one is easy....pushing one is impossible.

There are a great many people in the GOM and within EMS operations that see ways to improve the situation however they do not seem to be in a position to effect that change. Until they are, using venues such as this to discuss those ideas works to forward those ideas. As we have seen demonstrated very recently, senior managers attend these boards even if only as readers thus they are aware of the comments being made. It is not beyond the imagination of man to think some positive result will be a byproduct of that interchange.

What you call gripeing might just be the very thing that gets a point across to someone that is pulling that string and if so....good things might happen. The folks that can make things happen need to hear and listen to those that are out there doing the job.

Ask your self this question.....Would you be content to maintain the status quo if you knew your company was going to have a fatal accident each year without fail? Some of the EMS outfits are having more than that each year....can one become so immune to this that it becomes a way of doing business?

Sorry....I will continue my gripeing as you call it. It is the Cowboy in me that Beefer doesn't like that makes me do this you see.

[Simon853]

Sorry for an ignorance, but could it simply be that those people who run such operations simply don't fly helicopters themselves? In my engineering industry (as I'm sure most if not all others) where professional managers get involved, the rank and file knowledgable workers are always left scratching their heads and frustrated over the way things are done, often counter-intuitively, unproductively, and with a misplaced focus.

Si

[Brian Abraham]

SAS, I'm afraid your p155ing in the wind. Worked as an offshore jockey for 27 years in an operation owned and operated lock stock and barrel by an oil company. They were not in the business of spending money on anything. In fact I think, no I am sure, the standards in our operation would have been far higher had we been a contractor. There was no pretence at operating in accordance with the regs. We were managed by people who had no idea of the difference between a collective and a cyclic and yet the very same people dictated the fuel we would carry on a flight. And if you took exception to their dictates your salary which was subject to a yearly appraisal would be severly down graded. Yesterday the news said that the company made a profit of $38US billion - up 20% on the previous year. The CEO two years ago made $38US million. Poor bugger, I wonder how he makes do.

[brainiac]

Seems the common problem all fall back to poor leadership.
Sasless, I think the root of the many problems this business are having is due to the very basic management (or lack thereoff). Promotion of the right people will always be a problem, cause a capable person would need to point out all managements prior f*uckups.
The recent investment in new material is all due to cost. It's cheaper to run in the long run than 20 year old aircraft. Nothing to do with safety.