What's New In W. Africa (Nigeria)

[Nigerian Expat Outlaw]

Don't Be Too Hasty

GMIA,

Let's see what happens and hope that a new broom can at least begin to sweep clean. First impression is that this MD is much more open and willing to communicate. After all he's only just taken over so I believe he should be given some time to get his feet under the table.

Time will tell, although I fear the trickle of departures may soon become a torrent so time is of the essence !!

NEO

[chuks]

For that information you must pay!

You guys know Brits and you know Nigeria so just connect the dots however you like to come up with one very weird scenario on one very weird Monday morning. In hindsight it made sense but at the time it was laughably weird.

Ask Neo; he knows all and if he doesn't know he'll be happy to make something up. Just don't let him sell you a fairly-used generator once he starts talking to you.

The next afternoon from Chicken Tetrazzini was 9/11. My nerves were already fried and twitching when I walked into the living room at House 6 on that estate in PH to see some crappy disaster movie playing on the TV. A minute later we realised that it was no movie but CNN live from New York City. It took me a whole day to remember to call and check on my sister and her husband who live and work in that area because it seemed so unreal.

Never mind third-rate war stories. The main point is simply that you all need to make an informed decision about staying or leaving, when that can be really difficult. The longer you spend in a place the more ties develop, as a worker.

The bosses spend their time up there in some air-conditioned aerie making those cool decisions about whether to give the serfs new strings for their balalaikas, see if that makes them happy enough to stave off trouble for as long as it takes until they can move on to another operation. The good stuff only comes in dribs and drabs, especially given that notorious system that ties the bonus to spending as little as possible. So much for investing in the future of Nigeria. (How often do you read a sentence combining those two words, "future" and "Nigeria"?)

You guys are down there sweating it out in the hangar or the cockpit, trying to keep things running. That gives a very different perspective, when loyalty to the company and to your fellows can keep you in place long after a cooler head might tell you to leave. Just think about how often you have been told by leavers that it is better elsewhere; that cannot always be "sour grapes," can it?

[alouette]

the old saying...

...money ain't everything, but peace in mind and a little decent living standard is.

By the way, speaking of these guards - they are useless.

[ben767]

Looking for Flying Jobs

Hey were are you at?
Are they still looking for Pilot?
I have 7000 T
3200 jet
type on 737-300
SIC CL65,.......
Any inpot would be grate?
Thanks
767 driver

[biggestboy]

At my desk - why????? trying to inpot things on my grate computer.

[Troglodita]

Spelling 3 out of 10 - see me!

Biggestboy,

I though you would be too busy lurning about your shinny new Sick Whore Ski to make fun of illiterate plank drivers.

What is the latest goss on you having something to fly when you finish your course?

Is it still a case of "Carry on Converting" as the old Shepperton Studios (or the new Redhill Comedy Team) would name the programme?

Trog

[Good Man In Africa]

alouette,

Useless indeed. Also very belligerent and resentful. The hateful looks on their faces, lethargic body language etc isn't only because they get paid a pittance.

For information leaks one would not have to look far

[Troglodita]

Useless indeed. Also very belligerent and resentful. The hateful looks on their faces, lethargic body language etc isn't only because they get paid a pittance.

GMIA - That covers the Pilots - what of the Guards?

[Nigerian Expat Outlaw]

The Full 360 ?

chuks,

So if you were called in the wee hours and asked to come back you'd turn down the offer without a second thought ? It was lucky you had somewhere to go when that call came last year and then got withdrawn at the last minute. Or maybe they were just testing ? If so I'm not sure if you passed or failed............

I think everyone agrees there is a life outside/after Nigeria, but people stay or keep returning after their first or in some cases second or third escape. Why ?

I'm banking on a huge pay rise, business class travel and five star accommodation with at least three days a week off. But I'll keep my generator address book just in case !!

NEO

[chuks]

Moi?

Neo, you know me! I was ready to come back, more for the craic and the Dornier than anything, esp. since the new terms and conditions were USD instead of GBP, as if I wouldn't notice that. But it certainly wasn't a case of "drop everything to jump back into the big red, white and blue meat grinder," no.

If you bother to read between the lines in what I have written here I am not stating that I am any better than the rest of you; I would have still been there if it were not for the strange workings of fate and a certain German sh*t-head. Well, up to age 60, anyway. The numbers made sense so why jump? Same logic most of you use, I think.

In strict money terms what I did was a disaster, swapping the steady supply of drinking vouchers for 15 months off work, mostly living in London, flying in the U.K., doing a ride with the C.A.A. when just the test fee is 900-odd pounds, doing a self-financed simulator ride... none of that made any numerical sense so that I should have just sat tight working on the garden house and waiting for Captain Scheisskopf to spit the dummy so that I could return. The satisfaction of getting that ATPL was probably worth it, though, even if 18 months of hard work now has only just covered the cost of that.

All I want to say is that there is life outside Nigeria. I had heard rumours of that and yes, it really is so. There's a weird mind-set that most of the old hands get into that just keeps them cemented in place to the puzzlement of outsiders, when I was no different to most.

[Good Man In Africa]

Methinks he doth protest too much...........

[SASless]

Actually Chuks, with that kind of good thinking....you may have been affected more than you think by all the association with mere helicopter pilots.

There is still hope as you were still able to withstand the last step of taking a new position at grossly less pay....but we are watching you for that total submission to our way of life.

It is odd to hear you finally admit you are no better.....you certainly never suggested that while holding forth on the topic while you so crassly quaffed all those Gulders snatched from the vouchers left by the mere working staff.

But you do lie yet....."hard work".....flying a Twotter?

[darrelsdregs]

Well, MD has came and saw but seems not to have conquered Eket . Still no news of any pay review - I expect they're waiting to be told we have Agbami - but many of we are just waiting to hear news of that other job we applied for, maybe with ADA or Gulf or GVH, or just to go back to Australia like many of the Australians are thinking now. When we have all manage to escape, both pilots and engineer, Bristow will be able to sell her 412s to Calverton as they will have none to crew or maintain them . With the writtings of Richard Burman about not to have any unrealistic expectations and the money they must be wasting with a brand new S76C++ (5N-BKM) brought in for Agbami gathering rust in there hangar after the flood, the most of us in Eket know that NEO is just joking with his forlorn hope . Things here will never improve, because is still to much of just the old Bristow thinking, where people matter little as accountants want only profit, $$$ $$$ $$$ before people. They have forgetten that is people who make all there $$$ for them . If these bosses is so great why have they not put the new helicopter out to work and make money from all the charter out there like Aero always seem to do so? It will be too littel too late and they will have only themselfs to blame when they lose there biggest money earner in Nigeria

[Phone Wind]

What's really happening with that new S76C++ Bristow have in Lagos? Has it actually flown yet? If there's no news about the Agbami contract why haven't they just been using it for charter work or offering it to other clients? Do you suppose they'll go ahead and bring in their S92s and have them sitting around as well? These managers are ready to take the big profitability bonuses they get from cutting the already pathetic wages of local junior staff but I wonder if they'll have their pay cut when their decisions presumably cost thousands of dollars?

I don't see Aero bringing in their EC225s yet, even though they're painted up, in the hangar and ready to go in France. Is that because of the continuing dispute with CHC or because they have no work for them?

What about these Bell 412s Caverton is supposed to be bringing in to Nigeria in October? Is that going to be the usual story (i.e. just a story, like the AW139s) or have they actually got any work for them? If Bristow are having problems keeping pilots right now even on a 6/6 roster and always paying on time, how on earth will Caverton manage to get any pilots with their 13/4 roster, often late paying and sacking people all the time?

As has been said by others, it seems that more and more pilots (and engineers) are looking to other African countries such as Angola, the Middle East and Australia for work now. Nigeria is visibly in a decline and likely to continue that way if nothing is done quickly to improve matters

[Troglodita]

how on earth will Caverton manage to get any pilots with their 13/4 roster, often late paying and sacking people all the time?

Phonewind,

By accepting second or third best and relying on an industry which has a regrettable history of FNG's and PSBD's (Past Sell by Dates) who will accept any job as long as they get to grasp a cyclic and have a 50% or better chance of getting paid sometime - even if it will be late!

Or is my cynicism getting the better of me?

Can we guess whether any 412's that arrive will be shiny and new (Don't know where they'll find those) or old dogs?

Come on CavertonManagement - let us in on the secret.

[SASless]

Can we guess whether any 412's that arrive will be shiny and new (Don't know where they'll find those) or old dogs?

Bristow should have a monopoly on "Old Dogs"....both in airframes and pilots?

[Nigerian Expat Outlaw]

Sasless,

Very true. After all, you were hired !! Or were you doing Bristow a favour ?

NEO

[Troglodita]

Now now NEO!

Sasless was a young whippersnapper all those years ago - he just showed his superb people skills as a subservient Contractor when dealing with his Peers such as El Toro (Martin) and Dreid. He brought a new meaning to CRM!

It wasn't his fault that the average 212 had 30,000 hours plus!

He never had the joy of being given such wonderful examples of modern technology to fly such as BDD.

Cut the Old Dog some slack otherwise he will sail into Qua Ibo and demand all those gulders you promised him!

[anjouan]

Double Dung = Double Disaster

SASless also had the joys of dealing with his Nemesis, the delightful, Gallic, much-loved, baby producing Count WithoutanO. No matter how old SAS may be now, he can't possibly be as old as the Kapton wiring still residing inside the rotting bowels of BDD despite a recent D check. I'm sure that they saved a lot of money, but maybe some of those who now have to fly it, both crew and passengers should consider the following:

Kapton - the aromatic polyimide wiring insulation around the wire strands - has no place, in passenger-carrying aircraft. The main reason is that, in an electrical short, the wiring insulation chars to a conductive carbon residue and ignites like a dynamite fuse, affecting the whole wiring bundle (and therefore many disassociated systems). The phenomenon is known as arc tracking. Because the outer carbon char (and not the internal wire-core conductor) is then carrying the current, the circuit breakers most probably will not trip. There is therefore nothing to halt this "flashover" because the power stays on the wire. The older the Kapton wiring gets, the more brittle and vulnerable the insulation becomes. The wiring clearly is not safe.

Even though the British CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) has forbidden the use of Kapton insulation in new aircraft designs, a loophole allows it to be used in current designs. Despite ample warning about its dangers, the Royal Air Force took delivery of Kapton-wired Harrier GR5s. Two crashed because of the wire before the RAF embarked on a program to modify the use of Kapton in all the vulnerable parts of their planes.

In the early eighties, a US naval captain discovered an obscure Soviet technical publication, 10 years old, which analysed Kapton (technically an aromatic polyimide). The publication noted that the insulation decomposed when in contact with concentrated alkali but, more chillingly, the insulation was hydrolitic - it absorbed water. (Just great in a warm, damp climate like that of Nigeria). The report also mentioned Kapton's tendency to arc.

The US Navy, already alarmed at a rash of wire failures and unexplained flash fires in its fighter planes commissioned detailed tests of Kapton. These were conducted by Bob Dunham, its top civilian expert on aircraft wiring. Dunham's tests revealed a terrible truth about the now widely installed insulation. Kapton's positive aspects were heavily outweighed by its uniquely negative qualities. Its strength was negated by the fact that it had "straight line memory". It always wanted to return to its original position when on a wire drum. This meant that unless it was properly and frequently imprisoned in clamps it had a tendency to "roam" and subsequently chafe. Its ultra-light weight (only three and a half human hairs thick) was a huge commercial advantage, saving precious weight on the plane. But when the insulation wore through and the naked wire touched metal, it arced at 6000 degrees, and before short circuiting it flashed like a tiny banger firework.

Dunham's experiments then discovered that when the short circuit tripped the circuit breaker (fuse box) in the plane, once the breaker was re-set and the power restored to the wire, a new flame ran along the Kapton insulation, turning it into a charred flame conductor. In this way, fire spread along the path of the plane's wires.

Dunham, who videoed the tests, was appalled. So was the US Navy. By 1987, it had mothballed many of its Kapton-wired planes and unceremoniously banned Kapton.

So, if you're flying that good old heap of Double Dung and you have a fire, sue the crap out of Bristow for allowing it to continue shaking its way through the sky with a product which has been proven unsafe and is banned in new aircraft by the CAA

[zalt]

But not banned by CAA in a hybrid 412 then?

Perhaps if you do sue you go for DuPont - they have more money.