Working in Nigeria

[HeloTeacher]

Having been recruited in the last 12 months, I can say you are being scammed.

Please post the details of this con artist here to prevent anyone being caught unawares.

The company website is:

http://www.acn.aero

Use those details, even the legitimate employment agencies are a lousy way to go, in my experience.

[ruma]

There is no such thing as registration fees in getting a job with Aero-Contractors!. Somebody is trying to play a fast one on you. Beware of 419 Scam. A fast one for that matter. Looking for job with Aero? Check out at www.acn.aero there you can apply on line under vacancy and i assure you, you will get a response from them provided you are qualified as stated in their web site! Good luck

[HeloTeacher]

If you received the following email please do not respond this is a scam. They have emailed users on AvCanada 4 or 5 times in the last two years. They try to get you to send money for travel to a specific travel agency. The scam can be read on many other sites by doing a simple yahoo or google search.
I notice they are including Avcanada in the email now.


from ""donald kels" <[email protected]>"




Dear Employee,

We are the employers agent of a private aircraft company,called Aero Contractors. We transport both local and international flights, we also have cargo aircrafts for goods and we are situated in Nigeria, West Africa. I am Donald Kels, the Recruitment Director of the Pilot Recruitment Department of Aero Contractors, our office is situated at 1-19 Aero Close, Ikeja - Lagos, Nigeria.

We got your information from AvCanada and we will say that we are really interested in getting you jobs in this highly reputable firm. We have gone through your resume and we shortlisted you and if you really know that you are interested in this reputable offer, kindly reply this mail urgently.

Thanks and regards.

Donald Kels
Tel: [phone].
_________________
Regards,

Webmaster AvCanada

[CJ2driver]

WARNING:
It is a total scam, these bastards are using the names of totally legit outfit and honest people. This poser for Donald Kels has supposely found my resume on rotorwash.com and now he is offering me a chief pilot position on a CJ2 and $75.000 annually.
This scammer's e-mail ends @yahoo.uk, quick search revealed that all e-mail addreses for the company are @acn.aero
Thanks to everyone who participated and saved me and others a lot of headache.
Next step? How about some warm wishes to Mr [email protected], and as an attachement a boot in his anus.

[L'WAAPAM]

Nigeria operations. Update?

Hi All,

I'm looking at a possible job in Nigeria (Bristows) and was searching the threads for info but the last posted was in 03.

Anyone got any updated info? housing, amenities, social etc,etc

Has it changed much in the last few years or not at all in the last 20?!!!!!

Thanks




.... last posted was in 03??
I don't know where you've been looking, but you'll find lots of information in this and the West Africa thread.

Heliport

[pstjgw]

Look at the "What's new in West Africa" thread, that is up to date.

Pstjgw

[SASless]

Alternative thought...ask BHL for copies of Exit Interviews done with departing staff.....that would make for interesting reading.

[flyer43]

SASless I'm sure that you will find a fairly even spread of those that left with good and bad feelings about BHL. It generally depends on the way each person sees the way the company treated them. Often, if somebody thinks higher of themselves than they are treated, them they have negative thoughts about the company.
I would urge caution against using "exit interviews" as a good way of assessing any company.

[SASless]

Ah but 43 dear chap....the truth is in the interviews....for exactly the reasons you cite. Treat a professional in a crappy manner and he leaves unhappy....the key question is why there are vacancies at all. If it is a happy place...with adequate pay and benefits, engineering standards that are beyond reproach, living conditions are adequate, and the staff feel satisfied with their current lot in life.....why the turnover? Why are folks leaving the employ of the company? Just be sure you are comfortable with the answer before you put yourself into that situation is all I am suggesting to you.

The real truth here is....there are no exit interviews. If you read the threads that have been posted here....you will see a constant that carries over in each one of them. I would suggest that everything that is said is not exactly true...either good or bad included and that the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

The question one has to ask himself is....are those the warts that will bother me. If you have a high tolerance for certain kinds of warts...then Nigeria and Bristow is the place for you. If on the other hand their warts are the ones that give you the willies...then maybe not.

I also suggest there are far more folks that have been to Nigeria and are no longer there than are there and like it. There are worse places....have been to some. I have worked for outfits that are worse than Bristow Nigeria.

All helicopter outfits are the same....they have good cycles and bad cycles....the trick is to find one that has hit bottom and is on the way up....ride that pony until the top of the hill is crested and then jump ship looking for another one that is heading up the grade.

The tricky part is judging when the time to jump is right.....and the old saw of being the first rat off the sinking ship is better than being the last rat off is too true.

There are guys in Nigeria that have been there literally forever with Bristow...they have found a way to meet their expectations. There are large numbers of folks that could not find a way to adjust their standards to meet the needs there. For sure, you will meet some very interesting personalities. I have friends that are there that I treasure.

Bottom line... it all comes down to money...if you think you are being adequately compensated and can live with the existing standards then by all means go for it. You will not find it the same as BHL in the NorthSea nor anything like the British Army. That I can promise.

[flyer43]

SASless

Treat a professional in a crappy manner and he leaves unhappy

I obviously hit a nerve there!! I've seen operations all around the globe and have come to know the BHNL operations quite well in recent years. As you also say

All helicopter outfits are the same....they have good cycles and bad cycles....

Too true, although some have heavier leanings to one side than the other.
However, your comment

The tricky part is judging when the time to jump is right.....and the old saw of being the first rat off the sinking ship is better than being the last rat off is too true

suggests that you are not the most reliable member of any company, so exit interview or not, they probably treated you correctly! Employees who are only on board while the going is good do very little to assist company stability. The payback generally arrives in lower than expected salaries and poorer terms of service. The choice is yours......

[Phoenix Rising]

Flyer43 - Actually for the record SASLess's previous employer who is actually a good friend of mine, had sterling praise for him and was sorry to see him leave. In fact also spoke to a the Chief Pilot and DOM and both of them also had great things to say about him, so before you make a negative comment about someone remember that this is a very small industry and we all know someone who works or knows someone, if you get my drift.

Oh and in case you are wondering, NO I have never met SASLess in person, so there is no sticking up for a friend post required.

Cheers

PR.

[flyer43]

Phoenix Rising Point taken, and you are probably right, but as stated by SASless -

All helicopter outfits are the same....they have good cycles and bad cycles....the trick is to find one that has hit bottom and is on the way up....ride that pony until the top of the hill is crested and then jump ship looking for another one that is heading up the grade.

Doesn't give me a very comfortable feeling about his reliability.
And before you ask, I've got no axe to grind with SASless or anybody. I don't know him and I spent many happy years working for Bristow. I certainly wasn't "riding any ponies" but left due to lack of fulfilment at that particular time in my life. (OK, so my "exit interview" would not have read well at the time, but I do not hold anything against the company - they were just going through a time of large changes)

[SASless]

Flyer...

You make my point with your last post....you left....just as I left...just as others have left. Probably if we combined our evaluations of the place we left they would pretty much read the same. The key thing being....the reasons we left are "common" issues and most could easily be remedied with little or no expenditure of funds.

Loyalty is a word you are grasping for but have not latched onto yet.....we have to remember that loyalty is a two way street. In the helicopter industry that has not been the case for years.

You suggest I was "unreliable"...I suggest you meant to say dis-loyal....and I would point out to you how the longest serving pilots in the NorthSea got treated by Bristow during the layoff of the senior 52 pilots based upon age. That is how loyalty is repaid these days. They did the same thing at Eket/Mobil and had to rehire a lot of the guys when they could not man the operation. Look at the way the older guys take a pay cut after retiring and then return as contractors....that is loyalty? Many of those pilots had been with Bristow for many hard years too....is that the kind of loyalty you endorse?


In the old days of Bristow when it was run by the Old Man....layoffs were rare...."gardening leave was common" and Bristow was a good place to work. It had a personal touch that is geniuninely missing now. The Old Man got his pound of flesh but he took care of the people and demonstrated a certain amount of respect to those that made the money for him.

In this day and time...with the bean counters running the business...loyalty is a hopeless issue. When the contracts go away....so do the redundant staff....no gardening leave nowadays. Used to be the long serving staff were the last to go...not the first.

Thus, I would suggest your defense of the benevolence of your prospective emloyer might be overstated.

I have been outspoken...sometimes even right....sometimes not so right...but I have tried to maintain as high a professional standard as I can no matter how bush a place I have been. Some at the loftier places of power did not care for my candor but I did not see a lot of rightous indignation over what was being said.

The last time I arrived in Nigeria to start a contract....there was a bare house to live in....and by bare I mean no bedding, no towels, no pots or pans, dishes....nothing but a couple of chairs and some broken down old beds. It took an ultimatum to get the place furnished to the Bristow Bachelor standard. I know my arrival was a surprise....I took three weeks to get there after agreeing to the contract. As I said...treat a professional like a professional and things will work out. That set the tone for the rest of the contract there. Aircraft were refused by the customer engineering rep....a former BHL Chief Engineer....the 76 program was in shambles....

There is a time to jump ship.....sometimes that is the harder thing to do....but at the same time the exact right thing to do if your concerns are not being given a fair hearing.

Remember the loyalty issue......it is a two way street.

[joedirt]

flyer43....
You're remarks are more suited for military ops, where the call of duty serves higher moral grounds..........
On the other hand your providing a service (civilian), and they in return pay you. If they don't pay the market price, you leave. Their loss, but their indirect decision made this so.....
So lay off the moral highground of reliability issue, and salute SASless outstanding moral for giving his family the best return on investment when he is working.

[flyer43]

OK, so call it what you want - Loyalty or reliability. Loyalty is indeed a two way street.
It was interesting to note that SASless suggested that BHL was a much better and more supportive company when the old man was around, and yet that was when I and many like me left. But most of us were pretty loyal to the company for the most part, and the company was generally loyal in return. There were other issues at the time.
As for my thoughts being more suited to the military - you couldn't be more wrong there! Yes, if you pay someone enough they will generally stay, but I thought that the issue here was not respecting somebody's professionalism. Does that only have to be by paying them top dollar? I think not. What it means to me is making somebody feel respected for what they do. This may not necessarily mean earning more than the next guy, but it would seem that a lot of guys think so. Maybe that is one of the reasons that the heli industry sees such a high turnover in staff. So many pilots are "jumping ship" that it is becoming more and more difficult for the operators to plan ahead. It's also fair to say that for those operators primarily supporting the oil industry, there are periods of "Feast and Famine" due to contracts moving across and poor foreward planning amongst other things.
As I said before, I'm not pointing fingers at SASless, he seems quite capable of doing that for himself!
So back to the original quesiton for this thread -

Nigeria Operations Update - Has it changed much in the last few years or not at all in the last 20?!!!!!

I would think that nothing much has changed - Nigeria, be it working for BHL, CHC, Bloggs Helicopters or anybody else is either a place you get on with or don't. If you are happy with the money, can put up with the in country problems and are happy with the salary, then it's the place for you! Otherwise, look somewhere else.

[Heliport]

flyer43

There's not much point having a go at people who respond to requests for information because they say things you don't like/ think are wrong.
Those who need information can choose from the various views posted or, wiser still, learn from a cross-section of different views.


Heliport

[flyer43]

Heliport - Much appreciated, but it wasn't me that asked the original question, I was simply getting the pre-merged thread back to its original question posed by L'WAAPAM as it had been rather heavily hijacked by others, and me of course.

Later edit - Heliport, I see that you have changed your original comment re "why ask a question when you already know the answer?" and can only say that I agree totally with your last paragraph. I'm just trying to err caution for some of our readers as there are two sides to most stories. The title of this site implies "Rumours" are rife and, in any case, you should never believe everything you read on the Web unless it is from a totally reliable source or can be otherwise substantiated.

Cheers F43

[212man]

"Nigeria Operations Update - Has it changed much in the last few years or not at all in the last 20?!!!!!"

Well I can vouch that it has changed a lot in the last 9 years.

Lagos airport is now absolutely fine; Aircon works, escalators and travalators work, customs are polite and efficient with no hint of bribary, carrousels work and the crowds are kept away from the exit as you walk out.

In country, there is a GSM network and internet, so communications are relatively normal. Transport between bases is by Jet rather than Twin Otter.

Aircraft are mainly modern (EC-155, S-76 C+ and 412s on the way)

Some things never change though.

[flyer43]

212man
The "some things" were the ones I was alluding to! And probably what L'WAAPAM was really enquiring about.

The international airport has certainly improved, even in the few years that I have been visiting the country.

[anjouan]

Flyer 43,

You obviously don’t know SASless, who is a really good pilot. It’s just Bristow who he had a problem with when they didn’t want to hear opinions other than their own. He fell out with an individual who has probably been responsible for more people leaving Bristow than any other single person in the company history. Unfortunately, they have learned nothing as he’s still employed by them as a manager, albeit in a different location now.

But to get back to the thread...

Customs are still definitely into bribery at Lagos airport and last week the baggage carousels broke down yet again for several hours.

Bristow work a slightly longer touring roster than Aero Contractors, but in return for that they're paid a slightly higher salary in a stable, strong currency (especially as Aero will shortly be getting paid in US$). Their accomodation is mostly a lot better than that of Aero, the only problem being that you can be in very upmarket housing in a lousy area, miles from any local amenities. Messing may be done centrally or you have to buy and cook your own food. You'd need to check what applies to the contract you're being offered. Also be very careful about Bristow if you're over 55 years old. A few years ago they suddenly got rid of most of the pilots they had in Nigeria over the age of 57. No chance of the 'gardening leave' which was often offered during the days of old man Bristow. Of course, suddenly they needed people again and were trying to get some of them back, but several went to Aero. Bristow is definitely not the caring company of 20 years ago

As for whether Nigeria is a good place to work, that's down to you. It's definitely a more dangerous place to live than most places in Europe. Some people love it, some hate it and some tolerate it because they get what they need from it. It's the same the whole world over. You'd never get me driving to work in freezing cold in the dark, working wearing a rubber bag and then driving home in the cold and dark, as long as there's somewhere warm to work - even if I do have to endure a few other hardships to do so. I've never yet found anywhere to work where I was able to have my gateau and eat it