Bristow offshore contracts
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Good to hear Bond Offshore are still on the up!
A streamlined Uk Owned company - with none of the unnecessary Canadian / American bull
Bristows do their song and dance spouting Target Zero, and their Code of Business Integrity.
Target Zero : Zero integrity.
COBI : My
Bond still have a great reputation of not letting people go in hard times (even without a union), and have no trouble crewing contracts in good times.
If you work for Bristow, any business unit, it's unfortunate that you work for a company that hires and fires at will!
Bristows (It's Imlach who is the mouthpiece this time, it will be different henchman the next time around), and his Canadian competitors could learn a thing or two from the Bond Team.
A streamlined Uk Owned company - with none of the unnecessary Canadian / American bull
Bristows do their song and dance spouting Target Zero, and their Code of Business Integrity.
Target Zero : Zero integrity.
COBI : My
Bond still have a great reputation of not letting people go in hard times (even without a union), and have no trouble crewing contracts in good times.
If you work for Bristow, any business unit, it's unfortunate that you work for a company that hires and fires at will!
Bristows (It's Imlach who is the mouthpiece this time, it will be different henchman the next time around), and his Canadian competitors could learn a thing or two from the Bond Team.
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Jetboxer, I agree entirely with your sentiments regarding COBI and Target Zero. This man, who some might say demonstrates a conceited arrogance, has blown the definition of 'Integrity' to smithereens.
"Houston, we have a problem!"
"Houston, we have a problem!"
Love the bit about Bonds reputation for not letting people go Jetboxer.
My memory is slightly different.
Having gone on shift I was asked to drive to Conningsby to deal with a 365 and collect the pilot (Tony Peebles).
The aircraft had diverted due to thick fog. Visibilty was about 25 yards and it took over 3 hours to get there and the same to drop Tony off at home and for me to get home at around 1am. As the aircraft was required for revenue I got about 3 hours sleep then got back into my car and reversed the process.
The aircraft eventually got away and I got back to work at about midday.
Walking into the hangar I was sent to the chief engineers office where he and the group chief engineer were waiting for me. I was given immediate notice with no warning and was offered a 1000 pounds provided I signed a document within one hour after which point the 1000 was withdrawn.
To add the the fun they also kicked me out of the pension scheme and very kindly returned my contributions to me while putting their contributions back into there own pocket.
Being flat broke and out of work those four years worth of contributions were soon eaten up putting food on the table and heat into the house in what was a winter worse that the current experience.
About a week after being made redundant I was in the local supermarket with my wife. As we enterred one of the isles who comes into the same from the other end pushing a trolley full of groceries but one of the Bond brothers. On seeing me he abandoned his trolley and ran and I mean ran out of the supermarket. Cowardly piece of sh*t.
We had been in our new home about 10 months having moved up with our two young daughters because I had a "secure job" with a reputable company. Now I was out of work with no other jobs within driving distance.
Would be nice to think this was a one off but look what happened to the crop spraying guys who worked their guts out for the old man David Bond. They worked seven days a week during the spray season often away from home for weeks at a time with little in the way of overtime or expenses only David Bonds promise that when the company was successful they would be looked after. By "86 there were only a couple of the old hands left and sadly David Bond was long dead. The minute the Hillers were gone so were they. So much for promises.
I was up in Aberdeen on course without any transport and was attempting to walk round the airfield to my digs in a monsoon. A Bristow avionics engineer pulled over and offered me a lift. His story goes more or less like this. He was offered a job by Bond sold his
house and moved his familly up from Gatwick. One week after starting work he was given his notice. High and dry in Aberdeen with a young familly and a mortgage. Luckily for him within a short period Bristow took him on.
To come to more recent times I know of one ex Bond engineer who Bond tried to recruit for their southern operation. His response was that they could wait till hell froze over and he still wouldn't work for them.
I suppose to be fair Bond now is not the same as Bond then, but there are plenty of us around with long and bad memories of the Bonds. At the end of the day they are only after money and the workforce are an expendable and expensive commodity.
My memory is slightly different.
Having gone on shift I was asked to drive to Conningsby to deal with a 365 and collect the pilot (Tony Peebles).
The aircraft had diverted due to thick fog. Visibilty was about 25 yards and it took over 3 hours to get there and the same to drop Tony off at home and for me to get home at around 1am. As the aircraft was required for revenue I got about 3 hours sleep then got back into my car and reversed the process.
The aircraft eventually got away and I got back to work at about midday.
Walking into the hangar I was sent to the chief engineers office where he and the group chief engineer were waiting for me. I was given immediate notice with no warning and was offered a 1000 pounds provided I signed a document within one hour after which point the 1000 was withdrawn.
To add the the fun they also kicked me out of the pension scheme and very kindly returned my contributions to me while putting their contributions back into there own pocket.
Being flat broke and out of work those four years worth of contributions were soon eaten up putting food on the table and heat into the house in what was a winter worse that the current experience.
About a week after being made redundant I was in the local supermarket with my wife. As we enterred one of the isles who comes into the same from the other end pushing a trolley full of groceries but one of the Bond brothers. On seeing me he abandoned his trolley and ran and I mean ran out of the supermarket. Cowardly piece of sh*t.
We had been in our new home about 10 months having moved up with our two young daughters because I had a "secure job" with a reputable company. Now I was out of work with no other jobs within driving distance.
Would be nice to think this was a one off but look what happened to the crop spraying guys who worked their guts out for the old man David Bond. They worked seven days a week during the spray season often away from home for weeks at a time with little in the way of overtime or expenses only David Bonds promise that when the company was successful they would be looked after. By "86 there were only a couple of the old hands left and sadly David Bond was long dead. The minute the Hillers were gone so were they. So much for promises.
I was up in Aberdeen on course without any transport and was attempting to walk round the airfield to my digs in a monsoon. A Bristow avionics engineer pulled over and offered me a lift. His story goes more or less like this. He was offered a job by Bond sold his
house and moved his familly up from Gatwick. One week after starting work he was given his notice. High and dry in Aberdeen with a young familly and a mortgage. Luckily for him within a short period Bristow took him on.
To come to more recent times I know of one ex Bond engineer who Bond tried to recruit for their southern operation. His response was that they could wait till hell froze over and he still wouldn't work for them.
I suppose to be fair Bond now is not the same as Bond then, but there are plenty of us around with long and bad memories of the Bonds. At the end of the day they are only after money and the workforce are an expendable and expensive commodity.
Last edited by ericferret; 19th Dec 2010 at 09:55.
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Why does the Bristow website state that "Aberdeen flight schedules are currently unavailable"? What is it that the company don't want their clients to see? Not enough pilots to do the job; well, there's a thing!!
Rumour has it that Norwich is next for the Imlach treatment! No doubt other bases are on the list too. Having thrown COBI and Target Zero out of the window, exposing those ideals as a complete sham, the Americans must now decide if the short term gains are worth the long term losses.
Imlach is possibly about to destroy what is, at the moment, a great company. I hope that his (severe lack of) leadership skills come back to haunt him.
Rumour has it that Norwich is next for the Imlach treatment! No doubt other bases are on the list too. Having thrown COBI and Target Zero out of the window, exposing those ideals as a complete sham, the Americans must now decide if the short term gains are worth the long term losses.
Imlach is possibly about to destroy what is, at the moment, a great company. I hope that his (severe lack of) leadership skills come back to haunt him.
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Someone tells me that there were only 3 332 pilots available at the weekend and 13 225 pilots to cover a backlog of 4 days. More pilots were obviously available, but some 332 pilots have been told by accountants that they're surplus to requirement, and no one else volunteered to fly on their day off.
Wonder why?
Wonder why?
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As Britannia is half owned by COP it is no great surprise they have moved the business to their North Sea helicopter provider. Will pick up an ex BP L2.
Adding the AW139 to the Bond fleet will further stretch the small Bond organisation.
Adding the AW139 to the Bond fleet will further stretch the small Bond organisation.
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Bristow website state that "Aberdeen flight schedules are currently unavailable"?
This is a disgrace and loads of oil rig workers now know about this forum and have been reading the various posts .Bristow's must be getting fed up with oil rig workers wife's ect asking why the site is down for Aberdeen .
This is a disgrace and loads of oil rig workers now know about this forum and have been reading the various posts .Bristow's must be getting fed up with oil rig workers wife's ect asking why the site is down for Aberdeen .
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Highvoltage - I suggest calling the Bristow swtchboard and asking for Mike Imlach. He may be able to give you some answers as to why Bristow are not capable of putting on extra flights to get you guys back for christmas following the disruption.
Toroidial Vortex - You are right in the fact that Bristow is not what it used to be. That, in my view, is down to mismanagement.
Have you worked for another offshore company? If so, you should have the bigger picture.
The service provided by the pilots and engineers of CHC, Bristow and Bond Offshore in the North Sea is of the same high standard.
To go even further, when speaking to offshore workers and talking about the helicopter operations, the two incidents that occurred in the Spring of 2008 are at the forefront of their minds.
In my mind, these incidents (especially in the case of the latter incident) should not be associated to Bond, but to the North Sea operators as a whole. Procedures have changed for all 3 companies since. Modifications have been instated in helicopters across the 3 companies since. All three companies are now safer.
Both incidents could have happened to any of the three companies.
The reality is that the passengers still associate the incidents to Bond Offshore. (Unfairly in my view)
That is why I find your quote about your feedback a little naive.
The reason Bond Offshore are winning contracts is due to a more competitive, straightforward approach to bidding for contracts.... not because of the feedback from the clients passengers.
And I'll say it again. It's great to see Bond Offshore bouncing back.
Toroidial Vortex - You are right in the fact that Bristow is not what it used to be. That, in my view, is down to mismanagement.
Have you worked for another offshore company? If so, you should have the bigger picture.
The feedback I get is that we provide a better and more popular service to our passengers.
To go even further, when speaking to offshore workers and talking about the helicopter operations, the two incidents that occurred in the Spring of 2008 are at the forefront of their minds.
In my mind, these incidents (especially in the case of the latter incident) should not be associated to Bond, but to the North Sea operators as a whole. Procedures have changed for all 3 companies since. Modifications have been instated in helicopters across the 3 companies since. All three companies are now safer.
Both incidents could have happened to any of the three companies.
The reality is that the passengers still associate the incidents to Bond Offshore. (Unfairly in my view)
That is why I find your quote about your feedback a little naive.
The feedback I get is that we provide a better and more popular service to our passengers.
And I'll say it again. It's great to see Bond Offshore bouncing back.
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two incidents that occurred in the Spring of 2008
2009 actually, and there's still no sign of the final report on the first one - why? Could it be a little embarrassing?
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Why would the AAIB delay a report if it was embarrassing? Grow up - reports from the AAIB often take two years to be published. Probably just as embarrassing as G-JSAR or do the Bristow Gods on this forum have a selective memory!
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At the risk of going off thread. (this should be about Bristow contracts.....or lack of)
Wizzard - Yes I'm sure it is a little embarrassing.
The interim report says it all. A perfectly serviceable aircraft (apart from the AVAD) was flown into the water. Pilot Error.
Luckily everyone survived.
The Captain being Ex-Navy, Ex-Bristow, Ex-Chief pilot with CHC, and finally a Captain with Bond Offshore.
He could have been flying a helicopter for any of the North Sea companies at the time. It happened to be red.
Wizzard - Yes I'm sure it is a little embarrassing.
The interim report says it all. A perfectly serviceable aircraft (apart from the AVAD) was flown into the water. Pilot Error.
Luckily everyone survived.
The Captain being Ex-Navy, Ex-Bristow, Ex-Chief pilot with CHC, and finally a Captain with Bond Offshore.
He could have been flying a helicopter for any of the North Sea companies at the time. It happened to be red.
No, not quite right.
The Red White and Blue companies fly their 225's like a 225 - Accident probably wouldn't have happened.
The Red company fly their 225's like a 332L2 and take out all the automatic protection systems before finals because they choose to be cheap and duel-rate pilots on 2 different aircraft at the same time.
Still that's how you gain contracts and win over clients guess so who am I to criticise these business decisions??
The Red White and Blue companies fly their 225's like a 225 - Accident probably wouldn't have happened.
The Red company fly their 225's like a 332L2 and take out all the automatic protection systems before finals because they choose to be cheap and duel-rate pilots on 2 different aircraft at the same time.
Still that's how you gain contracts and win over clients guess so who am I to criticise these business decisions??
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It is very sad if Bristow are not able to inform their pax of what is going on and not able to get extra flights going to pick up the backlog in order to get everyone home for christmas. This is a sure sign of an unhappy workforce in my opinion. I saw that there were quite a few Norwegian CHC Helikopter Service aircraft coming over to the UK sector, taking pax in from UK rigs, then heading back to Norway, as well as having a huge program of their own this week culminating in a massive operation on thursday to ensure as many people get back as possible. You can see their program available on the heliport site and it is an impressive effort. Of course it helps that the pilots are paid good overtime and have a secure job environment, and that really is the difference.
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Sadly HB, I think you have a fair point there.
Without being disloyal, certainly BHL doesnt seem to be the Company I flew for, for over 40 years
Happy Christmas guys
TC
Without being disloyal, certainly BHL doesnt seem to be the Company I flew for, for over 40 years
Happy Christmas guys
TC
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Bristow
Horror box - I was told Bristow suspended their website because the clients were chopping and changing their programmes so much earlier in the week that the information ceased to be meaningful.
I'm also informed that Bristow caught up their programme by Thursday night and so everyone was indeed home for Christmas - so you're being a bit alarmist there. Yes, some flights were moved between the operators, but I think thats normal when everyone is catching up - the oil co's take whatever flights they can get pretty much regardless of the operator.
Oh and yes, I do know what else is going on.
Scots.
I'm also informed that Bristow caught up their programme by Thursday night and so everyone was indeed home for Christmas - so you're being a bit alarmist there. Yes, some flights were moved between the operators, but I think thats normal when everyone is catching up - the oil co's take whatever flights they can get pretty much regardless of the operator.
Oh and yes, I do know what else is going on.
Scots.