This wasn't the case in this situation.

re straps or coloured lights and the like: what about operations to and from NUIs?

Traffic light
 

The NUI babies I visit are all controlled from a mother station - that is why I am in favour of a red "Traffic light" as the last barriere!
regards
Dommer

Straps, lights... last barrier
 

Thanks to those responding to my original post.


The straps are suggested due to the past studies of lights appearing to be 'inappropriate' for a variety of reasons - see excellent 31 Aug posts.


My preference of course would be a means of turning the green lights to red. However, that is a major modification taking years to establish...


... meantime, straps are something that could happen almost immediately if someone was bold enough to act on a practical, cost effective, pilot supported proposal.

We'd like to hear any comments, especially if there are any flaws to the idea.

Yes, what if the deck is unmanned? (ie a NUI).

Then there wouldn't be anybody available to lay the straps once the helicopter has departed or to remove them just before it arrives.


The NUIs we operate to are all controlled from the shore. However, they already seem to have enough problems controlling and powering their wave off lights that I'm not convinced that an extra set of lights is necessarily the answer.

Could I repeat my question, what happened to the suspended crew?? Back at work yet?? Any punishment??

Straps, Lights... last barrier
 

My experience has noted WRLs seem to be more consistent with landings on occupied installations. NUIs may need something more technical... if any of you can identify why this process would NOT work on occupied installations, we'd enjoy hearing from you.

Well.. anyone who knows......Are they back at work....or suspend "Sine Die"

low pay = unskilled labour
 

To me this whole thing has a much simpler explanation. The less you are willing to pay for labour, the less experience and skill you will get. No one is exempt from making mistakes, we are all human. But with acquired experience and skills, usually, the potential for mistakes reduces significantly. As pilots, acquiring these skills and experience take a long time and a lot of effort and, if you have any pride in yourself, you wouldn't sell yourself cheaply. Apparently Bond offer 85K gross salary as Captain to fly the state of the art machine nowadays and in one of the most complicated operations: North Sea CAT to offshore platforms. The results have not taken long to show.... Luckily no one was hurt this time.

In most cases the amount you are willing to pay for a product or service is directly proportional to the quality you'll receive in return.

85k isn't THAT bad!!

I am guessing that people have been warned off commenting about the outcome of the crew inquiry???

Patience is a virtue
 

No-one has been told to keep quiet. The easiest and most-sensible choice is not to comment until all facts are clear and known. Maybe the crew in question or Snr management might be the best people to provide feedback. There are crew room rumours, but they are just that and quite rightly have remained within the company's walls until the investigation and it's outcomes are completed and published.

Pay scales
 

I think it's worth pointing out that £85k is a pretty good starting salary for a Captain and that the pay continues up into six figures as your seniority and experience increases.

Frankly though, pay has absolutely nothing to do with this and to question the professionalism of crews based on pay is crass and unjustified, or are you suggesting that how good a pilot you are is directly related to how much you get paid?

Bit naughty of me there, I thought the comment might get a response. The reason I keep asking is to find out if the crew are still grounded. I said weeks back, that a grounding plus a quick inquiry, bollocking and return to duty would show positive robust leadership. If it is being dragged out this long...... Well, I retract that statement.

Totally agree on the pay versus ability comment WW

Things are progressing. With regard to detail, that's for the company to deal with right now. I'm sure it will all come out in the open soon.

Our worst enemy
 

Unfortunately, we pilots are our own worst enemy. In today‘s economy I‘ll agree, 85k is a good salary. And if you are someone with around 2 or 3 thousand hours and pretty recent to the NS (i.e. a couple of years) and the right type rating on your licence then yes, 85k is pretty good. Or if you are ex-army or ex-navy with lots of experience in other types of operations (but not the NS) and are looking for a way into the civilian job market then yes, 85k is not bad at all. But if you are someone with 10+ years NS offshore experience, and 2000+ hours on the specific type flown you are doing all your fellow colleague pilots a very small favor by accepting such pay conditions. I also understand that everyone has their own particular life situation and circumstances and one must look after themselves and his/her loved ones. Companies know this and they search for the most desperate pilot in need of a job with the most experience posible.
It is what we all do every day, look for a bargain. But when you get it, be prepared for the worst because you will have a lot more chances of things possibly going wrong.

I have to be a little careful here but let's just say two of our most senior pilots were crewed together recently. Not a complicated flight, only a choice of two landings places 'A' and 'B'. 90 times out of 100, place 'A' is the destination, every so often it's place 'B'. Both pilots are reasonably well paid, widely experienced in a multitude of roles and on a variety of helicopter types. Chatting about the unfortunate crew involved in landing on the wrong deck, the conversation turned to just how easy it would be to land at the wrong place, "you know, so used to going to 'A', put A in the GPS, pilot monitoring is so used to going to A, his cross check doesn't ring an alarm bell - landing site crew don't notice the request for clearance to land was for place 'A' rather than 'B' - there but for the grace....." Anyhow, flight completed without mishap; however, a significant sigh of relief that no landing was made at the wrong place and a very real awareness that they were very capable of embarrassing themselves in the same way.

Moral of the story, none really except to say, if you think pay, position, salary, experience etc has any relationship to the likelyhood of cocking up then you need to go back to CRM module 1 lesson 1 and have a re-think. Humans cock up because we are human, training and sops help but can never eradicate the problem, traffic light system would help too but who out there has never accidentally driven through a red traffic light?!

Cheers

TeeS

Who says that 10 year NS Captains are accepting £85k?

Totally agree B73. I seem to recall mentioning Snr Captains salaries being six figures. It all depends on your experience and qualifications; the more you have, the more pay you can ask for. However, it still doesn't make you a better pilot than your co-pilot, it just means you probably have more experience. And let's not confuse experience with competence.

I had the experience of thinking I had landed on the wrong deck:{ there were 2 Sedco 71x's next to each other. We landed facing out to sea. No sign of HLO. Had we landed on wrong one. I swore I had read name on helideck, it was a sweaty 2ish mins before HLO appeared. It was the right one but it wasn't a pleasent feeling.:{

HF

You are always a better pilot than your co-pilot. I have spent more of my life than I would like to remember as a co-pilot and I have always listened and learned from the Captain of the aircraft.

The co-pilots who think they are better than their captain are the ones who eventually turn out as lousy captains, if they make it.