What's New In W. Africa (Nigeria)
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Out of Africa
Age: 70
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Birstow?? another Sidlexic FNG!
good, bad or ugly?
that is no way to refer to your potential future workmates but looking at Biggestboys photos of some of the Escravos "Chapter" - I can appreciate your concerns.pm me if you want some contact details!
Entire Chevron Nigeria is on strike at the moment so not much going on!
Anyone got any good rumours about when strike will finish? We heard agreement is close but strikers want the weekend off before making any decisions!
Just trying to get both sides of the story. No offense.
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Winchester, TN
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Joker
You are correct. There was at least one American (me) that got the unfortunate call the other morning. I had just resigned my position with my current company to dedicate some serious study time to the CHC Ops Manuals in preparation for the move, trained my own replacement, and then the call. 
Really sucks, but I am looking at it in a positive light, as best I can. Perhaps I can get some additional training in that makes me even more competitive in the market.
Maybe even CHC in the future!?
Really sucks, but I am looking at it in a positive light, as best I can. Perhaps I can get some additional training in that makes me even more competitive in the market.
Maybe even CHC in the future!?
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Jankara
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Things could be getting a bit warmer in the Delta. The US Consulate General has issued the following warning for all US citizens:
U.S. Consulate General LAGOS
NIGERIA
June 26, 2008
Warden Message
Attention all American citizens:
American citizens are reminded that according to recent press reports Niger Delta militants may plan to escalate their activities in regions beyond their previous primary target areas in the Niger Delta region. Possible targets could include expatriate personnel, Western businesses or facilities and locales visited by tourists and foreigners in other regions of Nigeria. We continue to advise all Americans to review their security procedures, remain vigilant to their surroundings, and report any specific incidences of targeted violence toward U.S. citizens or facilities. For telephone numbers for Embassy in Abuja or the U. S. Consulate General in Lagos see last paragraph. You may also email the Abuja Consular Section at: [email protected] or the Lagos Consular Section at: [email protected]
Zalt,
The figure I hear on the grapevine is at least expat 15 pilots from here to go
. Meanwhile they're hiring a few national pilots who are leaving Bristow. Quite a few of the Bristow guys I talk to are now seriously looking elsewhere, so maybe some of the CHC surplus will end up with Bristow - though I think there could well be a shortage unless the present escalating unrest causes some of the oil majors to think seriously about cutting back on Nigerian operations . The up and coming places seem to be Angola, Libya, Ghana, Morocco and Algeria, but I doubt they'll need helicopters in numbers like Nigeria has. Who knows, if that post about Caverton getting some 412s is not actually just a wind up maybe they'll have a queue of expats outside their door 
U.S. Consulate General LAGOS
NIGERIA
June 26, 2008
Warden Message
Attention all American citizens:
American citizens are reminded that according to recent press reports Niger Delta militants may plan to escalate their activities in regions beyond their previous primary target areas in the Niger Delta region. Possible targets could include expatriate personnel, Western businesses or facilities and locales visited by tourists and foreigners in other regions of Nigeria. We continue to advise all Americans to review their security procedures, remain vigilant to their surroundings, and report any specific incidences of targeted violence toward U.S. citizens or facilities. For telephone numbers for Embassy in Abuja or the U. S. Consulate General in Lagos see last paragraph. You may also email the Abuja Consular Section at: [email protected] or the Lagos Consular Section at: [email protected]
Zalt,
The figure I hear on the grapevine is at least expat 15 pilots from here to go
. Meanwhile they're hiring a few national pilots who are leaving Bristow. Quite a few of the Bristow guys I talk to are now seriously looking elsewhere, so maybe some of the CHC surplus will end up with Bristow - though I think there could well be a shortage unless the present escalating unrest causes some of the oil majors to think seriously about cutting back on Nigerian operations . The up and coming places seem to be Angola, Libya, Ghana, Morocco and Algeria, but I doubt they'll need helicopters in numbers like Nigeria has. Who knows, if that post about Caverton getting some 412s is not actually just a wind up maybe they'll have a queue of expats outside their door
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Desert Rat
Age: 53
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An Austrian arrested?!?
I actually find this highly amusing that an austrian contractor has been arrested in Nigeria for scamming its government out of its pants
. I want more of that. Usually it is the other way around
This Avsatel does not even have a website...con artist!!!
. I want more of that. Usually it is the other way aroundThis Avsatel does not even have a website...con artist!!!
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Eket
Age: 63
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I here that our old chief Carl may be going to work in India. There is a company there with many Bell 412s and the boss is an ex Bristow man (David Hayler). If that is true I hope he'll come and tell us here if it is any good even though it is not in Africa. Many of we the dregs are digging a tunel of escape 
. Not that it matter to Bristow because management in Lagos says they have plenty off pilots and long waiting lists to come to our beautiful hotel 
. Well, we will see.
. Not that it matter to Bristow because management in Lagos says they have plenty off pilots and long waiting lists to come to our beautiful hotel . Well, we will see.
Holiday Destinations
Lagos management always has piles of resume's and long, long, lines of people beating the door down begging to hire on. They have said that for thirty years now....why change? Of course they just skip right over the facts while doing so!
How many aircraft set idle due to no bums in seats in the past?
PeeWee and the Majah can snap their fingers and make things happen.....right?
How many aircraft set idle due to no bums in seats in the past?
PeeWee and the Majah can snap their fingers and make things happen.....right?
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Germany
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Forget Algeria, I think.
I don't know what is going on further up-country but out here in the Sahara Desert there are a couple of government Mil-14 gunships and one or two civilian B-206Ls doing inspection flights out of Hassi Messaoud for an outfit named "Tassili" but that is it for helicopters as far as I know.
The lowest form of aviation life here is the Pilatus PC-6 Porter, which only needs 600 x 15 metres of whatever, usually crushed, watered and rolled gypsum, to operate happily in the desert. You just need a Cat, a supply of gypsum and a reasonably flat place to make your strip, put in a windsock and a tie-down area and then you are in business. The Porter only does 110 knots but so what?
Next up the food chain is the Cessna C-208 Caravan. I don't know about the strip length required but you get up to 160 knots, plus an idiot can fly one! (I went on a demo flight when the demo pilot stretched out asleep in the back before we had passed Lagos Lagoon, so that I had to wake him up just before landing at Escravos. Now, I know that I am the World's Greatest Pilot and all, but would you let some guy you never met loose at the controls of something he had never flown before if it wasn't dead easy to fly?)
I am flying the DeHavilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter, when that needs 800 x 20 metres, a windsock and a tie-down area. With that you get 165 knots!
Then you have the the LET-410 and the Beech 1900. They need something like 1600 metres but you get about 180 knots plus air conditioning and wheels that go up and down with the LET and, ooh, 230 knots, that thing with the wheels, air-conditioning AND pressurisation with the Beech. (To ex-bush pilot guys this is like the Space Shuttle! I got the "What makes you think you could possibly handle this challenge?" number when I got here and rashly said that I thought I might be able to hack that level of complication. Oops!)
There is nothing like the levels of danger you find in Nigeria here but check out the advisories: it is NOT an untroubled place, as it happens, plus this desert will kill you stone dead given a chance. Too, there is nothing like the levels of pay! Forget this one, I think.
Stacy, Stacy... you would go back to a room like that, and so would I! God help us. SASless, well, he'd only go back if they made him GM, I think.
The lowest form of aviation life here is the Pilatus PC-6 Porter, which only needs 600 x 15 metres of whatever, usually crushed, watered and rolled gypsum, to operate happily in the desert. You just need a Cat, a supply of gypsum and a reasonably flat place to make your strip, put in a windsock and a tie-down area and then you are in business. The Porter only does 110 knots but so what?
Next up the food chain is the Cessna C-208 Caravan. I don't know about the strip length required but you get up to 160 knots, plus an idiot can fly one! (I went on a demo flight when the demo pilot stretched out asleep in the back before we had passed Lagos Lagoon, so that I had to wake him up just before landing at Escravos. Now, I know that I am the World's Greatest Pilot and all, but would you let some guy you never met loose at the controls of something he had never flown before if it wasn't dead easy to fly?)
I am flying the DeHavilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter, when that needs 800 x 20 metres, a windsock and a tie-down area. With that you get 165 knots!
Then you have the the LET-410 and the Beech 1900. They need something like 1600 metres but you get about 180 knots plus air conditioning and wheels that go up and down with the LET and, ooh, 230 knots, that thing with the wheels, air-conditioning AND pressurisation with the Beech. (To ex-bush pilot guys this is like the Space Shuttle! I got the "What makes you think you could possibly handle this challenge?" number when I got here and rashly said that I thought I might be able to hack that level of complication. Oops!)
There is nothing like the levels of danger you find in Nigeria here but check out the advisories: it is NOT an untroubled place, as it happens, plus this desert will kill you stone dead given a chance. Too, there is nothing like the levels of pay! Forget this one, I think.
Stacy, Stacy... you would go back to a room like that, and so would I! God help us. SASless, well, he'd only go back if they made him GM, I think.
Chuks dear boy,
One could not get me to go back to BHL/Nigeria at the point of several guns!
Well.....hang on a mo'....perhaps GM for a day and a good sweeping out of the Ivory Tower might work!
The Caravan is a sheer pleasure to fly.....even helicopter pilots can fly them with the barest minimum of instruction (such as which seat one should sit in).
One must remember not to use the brakes while backing into the parking spot! The Prop works much better but damn what an entrance to a new airport full of high class business folks, pilots, and red carpet!
The boss was wondering why he had hired me as I whinny'ed and yelled...."Hi Yo Silver! Away!" as the nose gear finally came down!
One could not get me to go back to BHL/Nigeria at the point of several guns!
Well.....hang on a mo'....perhaps GM for a day and a good sweeping out of the Ivory Tower might work!
The Caravan is a sheer pleasure to fly.....even helicopter pilots can fly them with the barest minimum of instruction (such as which seat one should sit in).
One must remember not to use the brakes while backing into the parking spot! The Prop works much better but damn what an entrance to a new airport full of high class business folks, pilots, and red carpet!
The boss was wondering why he had hired me as I whinny'ed and yelled...."Hi Yo Silver! Away!" as the nose gear finally came down!
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Norfolk
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The real story on rooms
Stacey, Stacey; have a care... you don't mean it. Don't forget - the phone doesn't work. The blanket is damp. The door doesn't fit the hole and there's only 1 nail been used in each hinge. The mattress is U-shaped. Look at that pillow! It's made of solid sorbo rubber lumps. It's hotter'n hell and the AC is noisier than a 212. Ah, those were the days...
But Stacey, on the other hand, you are in work from 0530-1930, dinner till about 2030, Mama Magroves till 2230, so you are only in the room and awake for an hour or so per day - 28 hours per month. See - it's not so bad after all!!!
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Lagos
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212man,
You're obviously forgetting that the NCAA now has a 12 hour 'bottle to throttle' rule, so forget that Mama Mangrove's until 2230
. At least in Escravos you only have to spend 28 days in that garbage and you get extra money as well as all your chop now - sheer luxury
You're obviously forgetting that the NCAA now has a 12 hour 'bottle to throttle' rule, so forget that Mama Mangrove's until 2230
. At least in Escravos you only have to spend 28 days in that garbage and you get extra money as well as all your chop now - sheer luxury
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: THE MANGROVE SWAMPS (RETIRED)
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Welcome for a Late Night Beer
212man,
You and Stace and any other ex-Nigeria guys are more than welcome to stay at my place until 2230, but being old and retired I live a fair way away from Nigeria now and tend to retire to bed fairly early. Imported Star and Gulder is hard to get hold of in my neck of the woods and probably costs about 4 times what you'd pay for it in Nigeria
You and Stace and any other ex-Nigeria guys are more than welcome to stay at my place until 2230, but being old and retired I live a fair way away from Nigeria now and tend to retire to bed fairly early. Imported Star and Gulder is hard to get hold of in my neck of the woods and probably costs about 4 times what you'd pay for it in Nigeria