What's New In W. Africa (Nigeria)
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: 1 deg south, avoiding Malaria P Falciparium
Posts: 385
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
AA is CHC.
2 139's @ Snake , 2 old 76's in PHC. Not much work. A couple of scheduled flight for the 76's a week and the 1 139 flys 3-5 hours a day for Shell. The rest is charter.
rumor has it s92, but that will be a process.
2 139's @ Snake , 2 old 76's in PHC. Not much work. A couple of scheduled flight for the 76's a week and the 1 139 flys 3-5 hours a day for Shell. The rest is charter.
rumor has it s92, but that will be a process.
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Ogba
Age: 53
Posts: 137
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Atlantic Aviation is CHCs re-entry to the Nigerian market. Any foreign company wanting to operate in Nigeria has to have a Nigerian partner on a 60/40 basis. Atlantic has some very sharp managers who will eventually run rings around Bristow. Aero is on its knees and PAAN is faltering. Both Bristow and PAAN are likely to lose a lot of ground to AA and Caverton over the next 2 years.
We seem to be containing the Ebola virus here in Nigeria
. Boko Haram is still an undecided story, but may split my country in two. They are the biggest threat since the Biafran war but none of our politicians seem willing to acknowledge that because they are too bust pursuing their own vested interests 
. Up to 20% of Nigeria may now be under the control of Boko Haram (and remember we have a population of around 170 million so that's up to 34 million - larger than some European countries). The military has meddled with our politics for years (and still does) but now finds itself outmatched by an enemy willing to fight and die for its cause. Institutionalized corruption and the greed of the officers has eroded esprit de corps.
Contributing to the crisis is the fact that most of the officers are political appointees, whose promotions are based on ethnicity and loyalty to the powerful, not on their astuteness in military affairs.
In a country where pursuit of power regularly trumps a sense of responsibility to the citizenry, Boko Haram is used as a political football to score cynical personal and partisan goals
We seem to be containing the Ebola virus here in Nigeria
. Boko Haram is still an undecided story, but may split my country in two. They are the biggest threat since the Biafran war but none of our politicians seem willing to acknowledge that because they are too bust pursuing their own vested interests . Up to 20% of Nigeria may now be under the control of Boko Haram (and remember we have a population of around 170 million so that's up to 34 million - larger than some European countries). The military has meddled with our politics for years (and still does) but now finds itself outmatched by an enemy willing to fight and die for its cause. Institutionalized corruption and the greed of the officers has eroded esprit de corps.Contributing to the crisis is the fact that most of the officers are political appointees, whose promotions are based on ethnicity and loyalty to the powerful, not on their astuteness in military affairs.
In a country where pursuit of power regularly trumps a sense of responsibility to the citizenry, Boko Haram is used as a political football to score cynical personal and partisan goals
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Murica.
Age: 45
Posts: 230
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Pan African Airlines - Home
PAAN website showing no news since 2011.
When I began working for PAAN in '07 they were separate from Bristow, then a while later everything was going to be under the Bristow name. Then in 2010-11 PAAN was, with great fanfare, separated from Bristow, to stand on its own legs. It was even rumored that PAAN would be bidding on contracts in competition with Bristow, as an indigenous company.
And now they are being "bristowlized" again??
I think the only thing that didn't change during all this was the lack of information from the top. Everything was rumors and conjecture and "you didn't hear it from me, but...."
If I had a dollar for every time I was told we were to get light twins, and that the contract was being renewed....
PAAN website showing no news since 2011.
When I began working for PAAN in '07 they were separate from Bristow, then a while later everything was going to be under the Bristow name. Then in 2010-11 PAAN was, with great fanfare, separated from Bristow, to stand on its own legs. It was even rumored that PAAN would be bidding on contracts in competition with Bristow, as an indigenous company.
And now they are being "bristowlized" again??
I think the only thing that didn't change during all this was the lack of information from the top. Everything was rumors and conjecture and "you didn't hear it from me, but...."
If I had a dollar for every time I was told we were to get light twins, and that the contract was being renewed....
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: 1 deg south, avoiding Malaria P Falciparium
Posts: 385
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Plus think of how happy your liver will be , 6 weeks with out booze. when was the last time you can say you went that long..... No Squardon for you!
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Marineville
Posts: 10
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Surely your national regulations or the ops manual would prevent a rostered duty day being converted to a day off, at such short notice to the change of roster? Nonsense!
Last edited by TroyTempest; 22nd Sep 2014 at 00:14.
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: UK
Posts: 9
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
PH
They were trying this nonsense on the Pumas a few months back.
That,along with a daily changing roster meant that a/shopping and
b/unwinding with a few sharpeners of an evening was off the agenda.
The answer to a/ seemed to be either the fine gourmet dining in the OC
restaurant or,like most people,a six week diet of Heineken and chips.
Anything resembling a complaint to the alleged Chief Pilots or Fleet
Captains was treated with the derision that it clearly deserved!
Malnutrition not an issue as long as your emaciated body was in the
front seat in the morning.
That,along with a daily changing roster meant that a/shopping and
b/unwinding with a few sharpeners of an evening was off the agenda.
The answer to a/ seemed to be either the fine gourmet dining in the OC
restaurant or,like most people,a six week diet of Heineken and chips.
Anything resembling a complaint to the alleged Chief Pilots or Fleet
Captains was treated with the derision that it clearly deserved!
Malnutrition not an issue as long as your emaciated body was in the
front seat in the morning.
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Holly Beach, Louisiana
Posts: 916
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
(4) The AOC holder shall relieve the flight crewmember, flight dispatcher, or cabin crewmember from all dutiesfor 24 consecutive hours during any 7 consecutive day period.
Does One run it up the Company Flagpole?
Does One run it up the NCAA Flagpole?
Does One want to seek alternative Employment (try Option 1 or Option 2)?
For a Lark....try to get your fellows to support you in such an effort!
When you work in Nigeria you just have to learn to roll with the Waves as you are not going to change the way business is done there.
Your choice is to stay or leave.
If you stay....enjoy the time off at home and paycheck and just do what you can to make it through the time in Nigeria at work.
Face it.... whores screw for work ... not pleasure.
Why should you be any different?
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Ogba
Age: 53
Posts: 137
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
In the last year things have really started getting worse here. Okay, we all know Akin is under a lot of pressure from Houston and he's probably more closely monitored than any other BU managing director. But Imlach has always hated this place (almost as much as everybody here hates him) and will do all he can to make life less bearable
Now that we don't have anybody left in Lagos except Wacko Jacko to control the fleet captains and chief pilots in Port Harcourt, they just get away with their blatant cronyism and interpreting the rules any way they feel like.
This company is reverting to what I hear life was like 20 years ago
The only bit of news, which may be good, but is nothing to do with Bristow is that Cameroonian forces claim to have killed Abubakar Shekau, leader of Boko Haram. Of course, this claim has been made before and been proved untrue and it may be that he'll be replaced with somebody even more extreme and bloodthirsty. With the poor communication with the north now because of the mobile phone networks not working it's difficult to know the truth of what's happening there, but there are more reports that the army is winning a few more battles with BH.
We also seem to be containing the spread of Ebola in Nigeria which reassures me.
Now that we don't have anybody left in Lagos except Wacko Jacko to control the fleet captains and chief pilots in Port Harcourt, they just get away with their blatant cronyism and interpreting the rules any way they feel like.
This company is reverting to what I hear life was like 20 years ago
The only bit of news, which may be good, but is nothing to do with Bristow is that Cameroonian forces claim to have killed Abubakar Shekau, leader of Boko Haram. Of course, this claim has been made before and been proved untrue and it may be that he'll be replaced with somebody even more extreme and bloodthirsty. With the poor communication with the north now because of the mobile phone networks not working it's difficult to know the truth of what's happening there, but there are more reports that the army is winning a few more battles with BH.
We also seem to be containing the spread of Ebola in Nigeria which reassures me.
Last edited by Keke Napep; 23rd Sep 2014 at 06:28.
Here's a link to a post from 4 years ago, seems very prophetic given the current climat in PH.
Link
Link
Old 21st Feb 2011
gwelo shamwari
Plans to replace expatriate pilots!!! Really?
The Nation - Plans to replace expatriate pilots
Plans to replace expatriate pilots
Font size: Our Reporter 15/02/2011 00:00:00
The Managing Director of Bristow Helicopters, Capt. Akin Oni, has said the company has put a policy in place to replace all existing expatriate pilots and engineers with Nigerians by 2015.
Oni, who disclosed this last week in Lagos at a press conference, said the helicopter company had trained some Nigerian pilots overseas who would join the organisation soon.
He stated that the replacement would be done in phases as the training of pilots and engineers to attain professionalism takes about seven years.
"I am proud that today there are eight Nigerians who are coming after their graduation in the United States. We expect to receive them, who have in the last years trained as helicopter pilots. They will be graduating in a couple of weeks. So, in another four weeks, we expect them back in Nigeria," Capt. Oni said.
However, the managing director said the company would like to do the training in Nigeria, but regretted that the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria has not got a helicopter training school.
He added that there were plans to start helicopter training at NCAT and that "when that happens we will stop the training in the United States."
Oni also said that the company was working with the NCAT management to build a hangar at the college.
"At NCAT, we are we are putting money into the classrooms and very soon we expect aeronautical engineers to come in from the United States. We have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the college. So, there is nothing stopping us from investing in Zaria. Also the equipment we have been waiting for have arrived in Nigeria and the next thing is the delivery of the equipment to Zaria," he added.
He further said: "So very soon, we will be renovating the hangar at NCAT, we are putting money into the classrooms, next month we expect, two aeronautical engineering instructors to come in, from the United States, these two persons will be at the aviation training college in Zaria, we signed a memorandum of understanding, nothing is stoping from going ahead with our plans to invest in Zaria, so the equipment we have been waiting for , for Zaria will arrive soon, is on going ,we have spend energy and time to invest in the training of eight Nigerians , today we have eight in the US, academy , we expect four trained as helicopter pilots, they will graduate very soon.
We are doing training of helicopter pilots abroad because NCAT does not have the capacity , it is yet to get an chopper training school, there are plans there, we have the largest helicopter training school in the world to assist NCAT, there is a lot to learn and we are wiling to assist, we are doing a lot.
The challenge is that there is a gestation period for pilots, and engineers, we are faced with that , we do not have the capacity to train enough pilots and engineers in Nigeria, that is why we are engaging foreign pilots and engineers, when we have enough Nigerians we will replace the foreign professionals, but it is even more challenging now that we have category one, we need to work more on how to replace highly experienced experts with Nigerians, knowing the gestation period of such professionals.
We will still need to engage some foreigners until we bridge the gap."
gwelo shamwari
Plans to replace expatriate pilots!!! Really?
The Nation - Plans to replace expatriate pilots
Plans to replace expatriate pilots
Font size: Our Reporter 15/02/2011 00:00:00
The Managing Director of Bristow Helicopters, Capt. Akin Oni, has said the company has put a policy in place to replace all existing expatriate pilots and engineers with Nigerians by 2015.
Oni, who disclosed this last week in Lagos at a press conference, said the helicopter company had trained some Nigerian pilots overseas who would join the organisation soon.
He stated that the replacement would be done in phases as the training of pilots and engineers to attain professionalism takes about seven years.
"I am proud that today there are eight Nigerians who are coming after their graduation in the United States. We expect to receive them, who have in the last years trained as helicopter pilots. They will be graduating in a couple of weeks. So, in another four weeks, we expect them back in Nigeria," Capt. Oni said.
However, the managing director said the company would like to do the training in Nigeria, but regretted that the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria has not got a helicopter training school.
He added that there were plans to start helicopter training at NCAT and that "when that happens we will stop the training in the United States."
Oni also said that the company was working with the NCAT management to build a hangar at the college.
"At NCAT, we are we are putting money into the classrooms and very soon we expect aeronautical engineers to come in from the United States. We have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the college. So, there is nothing stopping us from investing in Zaria. Also the equipment we have been waiting for have arrived in Nigeria and the next thing is the delivery of the equipment to Zaria," he added.
He further said: "So very soon, we will be renovating the hangar at NCAT, we are putting money into the classrooms, next month we expect, two aeronautical engineering instructors to come in, from the United States, these two persons will be at the aviation training college in Zaria, we signed a memorandum of understanding, nothing is stoping from going ahead with our plans to invest in Zaria, so the equipment we have been waiting for , for Zaria will arrive soon, is on going ,we have spend energy and time to invest in the training of eight Nigerians , today we have eight in the US, academy , we expect four trained as helicopter pilots, they will graduate very soon.
We are doing training of helicopter pilots abroad because NCAT does not have the capacity , it is yet to get an chopper training school, there are plans there, we have the largest helicopter training school in the world to assist NCAT, there is a lot to learn and we are wiling to assist, we are doing a lot.
The challenge is that there is a gestation period for pilots, and engineers, we are faced with that , we do not have the capacity to train enough pilots and engineers in Nigeria, that is why we are engaging foreign pilots and engineers, when we have enough Nigerians we will replace the foreign professionals, but it is even more challenging now that we have category one, we need to work more on how to replace highly experienced experts with Nigerians, knowing the gestation period of such professionals.
We will still need to engage some foreigners until we bridge the gap."
Gotta be a barrel of laughs every morning on the minibus with you helipiloto! 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Ogba
Age: 53
Posts: 137
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The end of the 4/4 along with all touring pilots having to travel at weekends has been on the cards for a while. Houston is ruled by bean counters and they hate 4/4 because all they can see is the cost of the extra flights . They have no concept of pilots on operations like Agip timing out after less than 28 days. They look at flying hours of a pilot who's been on a night standby and say he's not productive . I wonder how many of the oil companies we support are paying for a night standby thinking they have a crew of their own whilst in fact 2 crews are covering 4 or 5 companies' night standby requirements and Bristow is just hoping they don't all have a call out at the same time which would expose their night standby contracts as smoke and mirrors 
. They have no concept of pilots on operations like Agip timing out after less than 28 days. They look at flying hours of a pilot who's been on a night standby and say he's not productive . I wonder how many of the oil companies we support are paying for a night standby thinking they have a crew of their own whilst in fact 2 crews are covering 4 or 5 companies' night standby requirements and Bristow is just hoping they don't all have a call out at the same time which would expose their night standby contracts as smoke and mirrors
Link
But the death toll reaches 3000+
A pilot returning home to Canada after a hitch in PH spent 4 days in quarantine after health authorities were concerned when he presented with a hacking cough. Rather there than here!
But the death toll reaches 3000+
The death toll from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has passed 3,000, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.
The latest figures indicate that more than 6,500 people are believed to have been infected in the region.
Liberia is the worst affected country, having recorded around 1,830 deaths linked to the latest outbreak.
The outbreak is the world's most deadly - US President Barack Obama has called it a "threat to global security".
Some studies have warned that the numbers of infected could rise to more than 20,000 by early November.
The latest figures indicate that more than 6,500 people are believed to have been infected in the region.
Liberia is the worst affected country, having recorded around 1,830 deaths linked to the latest outbreak.
The outbreak is the world's most deadly - US President Barack Obama has called it a "threat to global security".
Some studies have warned that the numbers of infected could rise to more than 20,000 by early November.