I missed seeing that one ....
 

But I showed up soon afterwards to do my Madame Defarge number just the same:

At one point the NAF (Nigerian Air Force) got some Hinds, the export version without the chin turret. Mi-25? Just the thing for restoring order to the Niger Delta, except for the way that the Nigerian government in large part was behind such things as illegal bunkering.

Shell had built a new airfield at great expense at Osubi, near Warri. One peculiar design feature was that there was a single taxiway joining the runway to the ramp that split into two, using 90º angles. The center section at the edge of the ramp was reserved for fire engines, and it was flanked by deep, open monsoon ditches.

I had asked the Scottish Dwarf, in charge of Osubi, about this, whether it might be a good idea to either cover the ditches or at least put some sort of visual barriers there to prevent some unaware crew from taxying into one of the ditches. Drawing himself up to his full height, 1.3 meters, he told me that Shell had put out a notice not to go into the ditches which "everyone had read," so that was that and me told!

One day these two things, the Hinds and the open monsoon ditches, came together in a near-perfect way.

Some of the Hinds had stopped off at Osubi to refuel. I think it was a flight of three. When they were ready to depart, the last one was lagging a bit behind, so that instead of doing this time-consuming "turn left, turn right" thing that the lead aircraft had done, the pilot took a short-cut, angling straight toward the exit onto the runway, and right into a monsoon ditch. (I guess he hadn't read the Dwarf's notice.) To begin with the Hind had only dropped its nosewheel into the ditch, which was bad enough. The pilot decided to save the situation by pulling some pitch though, and then all hell broke loose, ending in one of those roll-overs. One main rotor blade even made it clean over the rather large terminal building to land out in the parking lot on the other side.

I have no idea how this works, but nobody died when that Hind came apart and scattered big pieces of itself in that way. On the other hand, I was told by one of my spies that when the Nigerians tried to put in a warranty claim with the Russians for repairs to their almost-new helicopter they got nowhere with that.

Another time the Nigeria Police Force Air Wing wrote off an almost-new Bell 412 by trying to fly it with the "low fuel" warnings showing steadily since lift-off, crashing it on the taxiway at Port Harcourt International. Most of the tail was torn off, and the rest of the wreckage was there with the skids all spread out and torn off, and the main rotors either ripped off or else shredded: something like $1.5 million gone to hell. It was interesting to look at, that wreck, because I had always wondered about how they built those new-style main rotors, and what the gear boxes at the tail looked like, the 42º and the 90º, when here was a real helicopter sort of "exploded" just like in the illustrations in my Big Book of Helicopters. Thanks, NPF Air Wing!

Mi-35 I think.

I remember also seeing the burnt-out wreck of a NAF Puma. I think they collided with the terminal building while maneuvering towards the refueling point at night, but I can't remember where that was.

We used to go into Osubi in rather non-standard ways, basically VFR in IMC at times. Doing that sort of thing had been all very well "back when," doing that single-pilot into Warri Airstrip in a Twotter when most of us knew exactly what we were doing, with nobody looking over our shoulders. (That said, Aero did stack up a few Twotters there.) You stepped down past the IA, finally seeing that "Chief's house," your cue to look for the threshold right under the nose, when that almost always worked the first time.

That sort of behavior did not translate well when it came to two-crew operations, and even less well when it came to operating small airliners into Osubi, which had no legal IFR approaches at all.

One day during the rainy season, I was reliably informed, the VIP section of the NAF flew into Osubi from Abuja in their Gulfstream, popping out of the low cloud not even vaguely lined up with the extended centerline but more like off to one side of the threshold. Nigerian luck was with them that day, when they managed to yank it straight and land, more by luck than judgment, but if that had ended in tears with some VVIP scattered all over the runway then things might not have gone well for Shell.

It's not fair to blame these sorts of screw-ups on the Nigerians and just leave it at that. There is often much left undone by the "First World" operators in the name of safety, as with those open ditches at Obubi, and the lack of any approved approaches. (That is to say, "Jeez! At least give me some IFR minimums to bust!" not that any of us have ever busted minimums, of course.)

It's not much use trying to set a good example for those unwilling to learn much, but it still might be worth trying a bit harder. Anyway, it's often so that the blame has to be shared a bit between Nigeria and the First World.

mmmmm..... CBT/EBT Competence Based Training - now who was it that was banging on about that - oh yes, it was me..... Sim Trainer ? Sim Trainer (if the EBT page hasn't arrived yet try this link ... http://helioffshore.org/wp-content/u...off-Newman.pdf)

This one was repaired, this latest one is probably economically repairable too.

http://www.targetlock.org.uk/eh101/merlin_accident.jpg

Wasn´t referring to myself-i am not that ego-centric (probably because i am not an offshore pilot... :) ).

I spent the last 6 years in several african countries-and the "culture" there is always the same:
They need to bring in Expats, as they don´t have the experience to get the jobs done themselves...they watch the Expats getting "spoiled" and thrown money at......and believe they can easily do the same job........

Everyone fresh out of flight school can fly an A to B job in good weather...but if things go wrong, that is when experience kicks in-and if you are lacking that, the result can be seen on the pictures posted here........

Huey Racer
 

The link I posted earlier will take you to the text of a presentation I gave to the RAeS back in July. It contains the following that I think supports your assessment.

I am banging on about ‘competency’ so maybe before I go any further I should define what I mean by that word. I judge a pilot to be competent when he can perform his daily duties safely, effectively and in accordance with all the rules and regulations that apply to that task. In addition I would include the ability to deal effectively with any problems that occur during the flight. He should be able to deal with the problems encountered and deliver the aircraft, passengers and crew safely to terra firma.

I have had the pleasure of training more than 400 pilots from 52 different countries since I started teaching on the AW139. Whilst 99% passed the various courses they were on, more than 50% could not, I my opinion, meet my definition of being competent. This is mainly because they are not able to cope when things go wrong.

G. :ok:

Hence the well known practice of issuing 'attended' vs 'passed' the course certificates. Easier to let the national regulator/military deal with the problem!

That's why military pilot courses hold "graduation" ceremonies, aka Wings Parades. You either pass........ or you don't.

Brutal but effective. I guess with the luxury of learning on the taxpayers dollar they can afford such a high attrition rate.

NEO

Huey ......
 

Expat ..... ok, there's a terminology I will accept!

100% agree!

I have met pilots from all around the globe-different colors, religions, educational background.
Many of them were excellent pilots-even the one who was handicapped, he handled the machines well, and was always aware of what was happening next.

Unfortunately-and this applies to most african and middle eastern countries (due to their upbringing)-most (not all) pilots out of this region believe they are god´s gift to aviation, after (more of less successfully) completing a PPL-course....and because its their father´s money and position bringing them into the jobs-nobody will ever tell them how they risk their own lifes, and the lifes of all passengers.....

Huey Racer
 

You've kind of hit the nail on the head. Those of us charged with the task of training can observe a stark difference between those that have been through some kind of selection process (military and 'cadet' schemes for example) and those that are 'self-selected'. The former are usually a lot more consistently able whereas the self-selected are highly variable. The election process becomes the licensing system so a weak system allows through some pretty awful folk who really should be doing something else.

The other dilemma is that course designers for the relevant training programmes can only design ONE course that must fit all comers for it must be 'approved' by the authorities. That is further complicated by the fact that those delivering the courses (mostly TRI's and SFI's) are only given the skills to teach 'competent' aviators and therefore struggle to succeed when teaching the vast number of those that may be capable but have been poorly prepared in their past history.

Those with not only an FI rating but the necessary years at the coalface teaching 'pipeline' students, will struggle too but at least they have the necessary background to give them a fighting chance of developing the necessary skills to be able to manage.

Sorry about the Thread Drift

G.

You may be interested to know that at a presentation a couple of years ago I used the 'Transparency International' global corruption map to indicate the nations that deliver students that call upon my skills the most in order to get them through the TR course. The map is here. The darker the colour on the map the harder I would have to work.

Transparency International - The Global Anti-Corruption Coalition

G

The darker the colour on the map the harder I would have to work. - Geoffers

Glad to see that you would not have had to work too hard in Greenland!:ok:

Jack

Union Jack

Actually the time I spent working for Greenlandair in that beautiful but challenging part of the world was pretty rugged. Staying sober was a real challenge but during my time Greenland was administered from Copenhagen so my Danish CPL (H) was issued there.

:-)

So now we know why Greenland was shown as the only corruption-free country on "your" map!:ok:

Jack

Yes, Mos is right.
The aircraftcompare site was a quick find but cannot be trusted.

The Indian contract was for 12 AW101 for $ 530 million.
$ 44 million a piece.
SLB

http://forsvaret.dk/FST/Nyt%20og%20Presse/Pages/HelikopterHold1erhjemmeigen.aspx

It can be rebuild, like the danish one.

SLB,

That price applies to far more than just twelve airframes....and includes Spares, Overhauls, and probably some training in all likelihood.

So the price is right now.
Spareparts and overhaul required.
Training can be an aftertought.