Long Distance Offshore Ops
 

What is the longest offshore operation (distance from operating base) you know about. What machine was used and where was it?

:ok:

Chinooks for BAH probably Geoffers...out of Aberdeen, or ERA offshore in Alaska.

I don't have the exact figures at hand, but I've done many of more than 200NM, out of Galveston, TX and Houma and Morgan City, LA.

The Hibernia must be close to it I would have thought
Hibernia

Teeside to the Ekofisk was a long slog in the S-58T single pilot with no autopilot was a long slog in the S-58T. Two pump stations along the way with fuel if needed. If memory serves me right...something like 225nm to the near edge and 245 nm to the far edge.

Bond and Bristow used to fly Pumas from Aberdeen to the Magnus platform - must be around 300NM? ooooooooohh those Magnus stickies were nice:}

How about a SAR mission in May 1990.

From RAF Brawdy in Pembrokeshire West Wales, UK, the Sea King and crew flew first to Cork then onto the RFA Argus vessel for a refuel, food and a wait to get into range. Then they continued to meet the yatch with an ill crewman at midnight, some 9 hours after the original lift. The recovery of the casualty went without a hitch and the the Sea King returned to the RFA Argus which had since been cruising towards the scene. The helicopter was refuelled again and returned to Cork to hand the casualty over to the hospital authorities. Landing was at about 6.00am, some 15 hours after the original departure from Brawdy. In all the crew covered nearly 1200 miles during over 11 hours of airborne time (7 hours at night). The yacht was, if I remember correctly, at about 47N 19W - which is approximately 550 miles from base (300 from Cork) Those figures may not be that accurate - bear with me it was 16 years ago. Somewhere in the loft I have the map the route was planned upon. Be interested to see if any more of the crew read this (DC, JB, DS, VD(V2D)). Remember the lunch in London!

The absolute longest offshore rescue was this one:

"In 1994, the 106th Rescue Wing received national and international recognition when the aircrews and PJs of the 102nd successfully completed the "longest over-water rescue with an helicopter in aviation history." In December 1994, the 106th launched two HH-60s from Gabreski Airport on a mission that would take them to Halifax, Canada and then, 750 miles out over the Atlantic to search for survivors of the Ukrainian merchant vessel Salvador Allende. The freighter had foundered and sunk in heavy seas almost 800 miles at sea. By the time the two helicopters and their crews arrived over the search area, most of the ship's crew had perished. A merchant ship picked up one survivor. After searching the sea, a survivor was spotted by an helicopter crew member and the two HH-60s prepared to put a pararescueman in the water to save him. TSgt. james Dougherty jumped into the water and retrieved the last living member of the crew. Then, the two helicopters began the arduous seven-hour return flight to Halifax, Nova Scotia. During the 14-hour mission, the two HH-60s had been refueled in flight 10 times by the wing's HC-130s. The pilots in both helicopters spent 14 hours without relief at the controls, all to save one life."

http://www.philippecolin.net/106thRQW.html

when I went direct to the magnus from aberdeen and back some years ago, I recall it being 276nm, seemed a long way at the time as we were only doing 125kts. (unless of course i have remembered it all wrong)

regards

CF

Lloyd Helicopters (now CHC Australia) were operating almost 300 miles off shore out of Darwin with 214 ST's(with 3x 90gal tanks in cabin) about 10 years ago (was told at the time it was the longest single leg offshore operation in the world) the, ST's were replaced with Super Pumas's all with 600L internal tanks, the ST's and S.Pumas would go out and back with about 6-7 hours techlog time and 2 landings!

Longest off shore rescue I Know of in Oz was in the early 90's out of Rockhampton QLD, 2x S70A-9 Blackhawks from 5 AvnRegt rescued two Dykes(women in comfortable shoes!!) and a cat over 400 miles off the coast supported by C-130 and P3 to do the job.

Geoff,

Mayne-Bristow operated a Wessex 60 from Derby, Western Australia, to the Ocean Digger out North of the Ashmore Reef: closer to West Timor than Oz! Early 1979, then moved to Broome.

We'd leave from Derby to Cape Leveque, refuel, on to Browse Island, refuel, then to the rig, refuel, back to Browse, refuel, then home 7hr 45 minutes later :ooh: At the pedestrian 100kias, it was about 380nm each way, all single pilot with the bears downstairs sleeping off their hangovers from the midnight special flight up from Perth.

Hot as Hades, we'd get truckie's tan on the right arm only: refuelling was from drums in 36C+, and nav was an original VLF with a volatile memory which dumped at each start. We dare not shut down both engines during refuel, as Browse Island is a lump of coral in the middle of nowhere, the only visitors being the Indon fishermen looking to see if we'd left anything useful to steal :=

Long helo flights
 

I work from a ship with a Hughes 500d, and spend most of my time over water - maybe 150 hours a year. For long distance, it wasn't over water, but from Juneau in Alaska to Cancun in Mexico. Took me 42 hours in the 500. A truly memorable flight. The first 2 days were all over water to get to Seattle, then it was through the Rockies, Grand Canyon, and on down to Brownsville before the transit through Mexico. We live in a beautiful world, and only with a heli you can see it !:)

John, the story has it that you used to shutdown one engine in flight to enhance range/fuel reserves. Is that correct, or just a story?

Just a story! I knew of certain Junglies who ferried a cab or two back on one, though :ok:

The old girl had no problems flying on one in temperate climes but northern Oz, even in winter with low 30C's, was another story :=

Handysnacks,

Hibernia is the short hop in our daily operation, it sits a comfortable 170 nautical off the coast. Our Puma's and 61 can do the trip without the aid of any aux fuel, (wind permitting). The farthest rig of Newfoundland right now is currently drilling 280 nautical, still doable with the Puma (full aux, crappy payload) but more comfortable for the S92.

Long range offshore (oil) ops
 

OK, now we have some background can anyone enlighten me as to the rules by which they got to a platform 280-300 nm miles away? I guess that was PNR and offshore diversion ......... or maybe no diversion at all.

Rgds

Geoff

Goeffers

Alternate was Suai in Indonesia. Australian requirement to carry alternate plusc30 minutes (inter) or 60 minutes (tempo) fuel. This was done by installing sponson tanks (Bristow) or an internal seat / tank combination (CHC Lloyd) which increased fuel capacity to just over 5000lbs. Parking the aircraft on a slope in Darwin allowed the sponson tank equipped 332L to carry about 5400lbs of fuel!! It also had a slightly higer TAS than the internal tank equipped machine due to less turbulence from the back of the large sponsons.

Payload in the wet season was 3-4 pax outbound in the Super Puma.

Surley the longest offshore flight without re-fuelling must go to the BV234 ? Was their diversion airport not something like Paris ?

A long diversions capability is not realy IMV the same as long scheduled flight.

BV234s out of Nome for ARCO may have been more interesting!


Geoffersincornwall

Is this just a theoretical interest or is Petrobrash trying to push the envelope?

UK rules required "On Shore Diversion" fuel in my days...not sure what it is now. PNR flights with an offshore rig for a diversion is fine if you have excellent weather reporting, flight following, and no aircraft malfunctions that would endanger the rig itself during an emergency landing.