Esso 50 Years Longford
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 2,697
Likes: 71
From: Wanaka, NZ
A few episodes of excitement were notified outside of the organization: The Longford bombing range incident, TE disappearing in a cloud of blue smoke when a C30 engine turned to shrapnel whilst doing a power check, the 1S1 exploding on take-off offshore, the #2 hydraulic pump of a C disintegrating which if I recall the contamination was so bad the whole hydraulic system was scrapped. But yeah, interesting stuff happened that wasn't widely known. Like the near mid-air collision with a dolphin, only two people know about that one. I'm sure there were others.
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 880
Likes: 225
From: Australia
While PPRuNe doesn't like copyright material being posted, I thought there would be no harm in sharing the cover of the November/December issue of Australian Flying featuring S-76 VH-ECR off the Barracouta (BCTA) platform.
The article (by Peter Ricketts, photos Lawry Cohen) about ESSO's Australian flying operations at the time indicated the fleet was composed of 5x S-76, 3x 212 and 2x 412 serving 12 platforms. Of the two 412's, one was on charter from Lloyds and the other from Bell (Brisbane). At the time, the company was considering maintaining at least two different types to address the risk of any wider grounding of a type, such as had been the case for their S-76's around a year prior to the article. Back then, the 205's were returned to service. Chief pilot was Mike Meehan and Chief Officer of the division was Alan Adam. There had been 21 pilots and 26 engineers employed plus a couple of apprentices.
Years ago, Aircraft magazine also had a feature on the Airfast company that previously operated to the rigs (after Ansett helicopter Division was discontinued). Also Aviation Safety Digest had a photo feature of the Airfast oil rig operation.
All the best for your 50th celebration next month.
The article (by Peter Ricketts, photos Lawry Cohen) about ESSO's Australian flying operations at the time indicated the fleet was composed of 5x S-76, 3x 212 and 2x 412 serving 12 platforms. Of the two 412's, one was on charter from Lloyds and the other from Bell (Brisbane). At the time, the company was considering maintaining at least two different types to address the risk of any wider grounding of a type, such as had been the case for their S-76's around a year prior to the article. Back then, the 205's were returned to service. Chief pilot was Mike Meehan and Chief Officer of the division was Alan Adam. There had been 21 pilots and 26 engineers employed plus a couple of apprentices.
Years ago, Aircraft magazine also had a feature on the Airfast company that previously operated to the rigs (after Ansett helicopter Division was discontinued). Also Aviation Safety Digest had a photo feature of the Airfast oil rig operation.
All the best for your 50th celebration next month.
Last edited by helispotter; 26th November 2024 at 00:47.
