so, only £600 then. Bargain!:ok:

Still doesn't sort the headset issue out. Can I get tax relief on a headset?

Helimut

Yes!
Speak to your BALPA rep or your friendly taxman!

bondu :ok:

Hi Helimut as Bondu said yes you can (But this is provided you empolyer does not suply a noise canceling headset, see the following link;

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/EIM50051.htm

rotordk, while I agree with you that the vast majority of pax probably wouldn't care either way, I have personal experience of the machinations of otherwise well-intentioned shore-based management.
As in many industries, given an opportunity to meddle in things that don't really concern them..............:ugh:

Guess it's not the pax then .

The pax are happy to get a ride home. It's the irregular visitor who might wonder why, if the front-seaters wear a bone-dome, why can't the SLF?

mayby the irregular visitor should wonder why the airport busses don't have seatbelts for the passengers, but only for the busdriver.

Ah, but in the UK our buses are fitted with seatbelts for the pax.

I recall the busses driving you to your departing aircraft lacks the mentioned safetyfeature in UK airports. I vaguely recollect the missing seats, but the straps overhead where there(not wellsuited for vertically challenged people).
The point is.....why can a person (irregular visitor..) with no aviation background be capable of determining the safety of something they don't have a clue about ?
Safety should be our first concern in all aviation decisions, shouldn't it !
Why is there 600 kg of safety-stuff strapped to the helicopter in the northsea enviroment, if the pilot is incapable of flipping the proper switches
at the right time (being unconsicous at the wrong time)!!??

Q1
A1 - Beancounters
Q2
A2 - see A1 above.

Since this tale of wonder has now been investigated and found to be lacking foundations in reality, let's no longer blame the pax for not getting a piece of safety equipment.

So, just still waiting to see if the 'promised' noise cancelling headsets are gonna turn up first. Believe they are to be ordered, but painfully noisy till then on some of our 76's.

Helmets
 

I find the argument for wearing helmets has taken on an almost evangelical slant much like that used by proponents of bicycle helmets by adults. This makes me worry that first it will be helmets for those who want them and eventually it will be mandatory helmets for all.
One of my better days was when I got out of the military and was able to take off the helmet and put on a headset. The idea of sitting in an S-76 in Karratha in the summer makes my eyes water, having to wear a helmet at the same time would probably bring on early retirement.
On 19 June the Australian newspaper reported that "the inquirery into the Black Hawk disaster on the HMAS Kanimbla last year heard that Capt. Bingley's helmet got snagged on the helicopter's antenna as he tried to escape. He managed to free himself after submerging 30m, but could not be revivied."

dpale - you believe what you read in a paper? Ask yourself if he could not be revived who witnessed the fact he got snagged. If you want to wade through the inquiry report you will find that it was the co-pilot who got snagged, and further, the helmet saved him from an injury that may well have lead to his demise (my conclusion from the damage the helmet incurred).

The comment about wearing helmets while driving is quite appro as well. A brain surgeon in Oz being interviewed for a road safety campaign opined that there would be far fewer deaths and brain injury victims if car occupants wore helmets.

To me the helmet will save my hearing anything else is a bonus, as regards to cool. I can not see that catching on down the Essex high street. IMHO.

Why not leave it as free choice? After all we don't all wear Y-fronts.:ugh:

Helmets
 

Cannot imagine anything worse than flying for 8 hours in a helmet. Like others I was glad to give mine up when leaving the military.
Remember you do not, like me, speak for all North Sea pilots so stop trying to ram your ideas down our throats. At present there are far more important issues on the North Sea like lack of communications and no radar cover past 80 nm which seem to be taking forever to sort out.

P3 do you fly north sea? or commercially at all for that matter? If not then you probably don't appreciate the type of weather conditions that we have to endure, severe turbulance is not uncommon and with all the switches knobs and buttons above and around our heads i would feel alot safer wearing a helmet than not. On nearly all platforms at some stage one member of the crew has to get out of the helicopter and on the rigs All personell working outside are supposed to wear some sort of head protection.
If pilots find helmets uncomfortable then surely it should be our decision if we want to wear them.
As to your idea that we want to wear them to look "cool". I dont see gucci stamped all over the immersion suits that we wear!!! and if we did want to look cool who would we be trying to impress?.......the hairey a**sed HLO on the heli deck?? :cool:

Helmets On
 

Not much point doing all that HUET training if you are unconcious?
We had a quick count up over a few beers the other night and out of the hundred or so pilots in the company 15 had been in the water at some point in their offshore careers. Some more than once!
I guess at the end of the day its a personal choice but for me its a no brainer - helmets on. :ok:

Some very interesting points.
From what I have read I confirm my thoughts that the North Sea needs helmets and the sooner the better, I do believe that it should be a personal choice so for those that do not wish to wear them may not.
My question is now how do we go about getting them provided? Should we go through BALPA and leave it to them?
As with all issues like this it takes a vast amount of time for anything to be agreed. For those that don't want to wait that long can we just start wearing helmets if you already have them?
If we do and the operator starts to object can you carry on wearing it?:confused:

TTT,

Having done both SAR and NS, there is no comparison between the environments. The only commonality is the sea. The bottom line is that when NS, if you loose an engine, you will fly away; at times in SAR, if you loose an engine you will crash. That is why SAR pilots wear helmets. And certainly in the machines I have flown, I have never knocked a switch with my helmet, even in the mountains where the turbulence is far greater than anything in the NS.

Helmets are bloody uncomfortable in hot weather and in my opinion offer poorer noise attenuation than a standard headset.

For my money, STASS before helmets.