Bird Guano on Helidecks

[Langball]

Folks, new to this forum, but here goes.

I work for an offshore oil & gas company, Europe based. We have a Normally Unmanned Installation (NUI), and bird guano on the helideck is a MAJOR problem.

We fitted an acoustic bird deterrent but the birds were disco dancing on the helideck a short time afterwards.

The only operator who has claimed to have any success is one that deluges the helideck with water when the birds appear (spotted via CCTV from the mother ship).

I believe a pilot has 'patented' a 'jack in the box' that is supposed to scare them away (cannot see it working).

Just wondering if anyone has come up with any successful means of solving, or even living with, the problem.

We're even thinking of getting a guy offshore with a shotgun to do a limited 'cull'. He vspecialises in scaring them away from land fill sites (dumps), and he uses a combination of shotgun and predatory birds to, as he puts it, 'build an association of mortal danger'. Works onshore, but has its own risks offshore.

Also, you pilots out there, do you have any set procedure for monitoring and avoiding the risk.

[John Eacott]

I was talking about this a few weeks ago, with a Utah based pilot. He claimed a lot of success with a previous operation, where they painted silhouettes of hawks/eagles/birds of prey on the helideck, to get rid of seagulls, etc.

I haven't seen it, but pass it on FWIW.

[Gomer Pylot]

In the GOM, nothing works that I've ever seen. I've seen systems that made noise of various frequencies, I've seen fake owls, eagles, snakes, and just about anything else you can think of, and none of them did any good. Apparently they aren't afraid of any predators, because they tend to sit close to the fake owls and eagles. Painting pictures on the deck does no good because it just gets covered with the seagull s**t. I've landed on decks that had well over an inch of it, along with the bones, fish scales and feathers that always are there, and when I finally refused to go there again, the company got some high-pressure water blasting machines to clean them. They had to remove paint, because the stuff had penetrated well into the paint, so a repaint was needed. After all this, the gulls just came back. For some reason, they like certain spots, and will congegrate there no matter what the humans do, and won't even bother other platforms close by.

About all I can suggest is a high-pressure wash every so often, the frequency depending on the rate of buildup.

[nigel f]

What about fitting a solonoide to "Bang" the Heli Deck, assuming it is metal, this would cause it to vibrate every so often, they may not like the noise or feaing through there feet.

Or you could use Feonic type actuators to vibrate the deck at varing ferquencys to scare them away, maby every 10 mins, Use solar to charge a battry pack if no power is avalble etc

Nigel

[SASless]

.....or...cast lead bb's all over the deck like bird seed....then come along and pick up the little buggers that cannot get airborne. The ones that do....will either land in the water exhausted and sink due to being over ballasted or they will be setting on the deck again with injuries that result from falling through on the roundout when landing again due to being too heavy. Same kind of situation most GOM pilots know about.