Weather leaves 300 oil workers stuck in North Sea
 

they didn’t have triggered lightning, when I was full time North Sea, or rather they did have it but nobody talked about it or stopped you flying because of it, I am inclined to think it’s all gone a bit too far, am I alone ?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64043030

The customers tend to lack an appetite for 'having a go' and seeing if areas can be operated through visually (by day) due to the odds of having to RTB without fulfilling the flight, and different crews have different levels of enthusiasm when it comes to offering flights that operate through areas affected by TL. At the end of the day it is just a planning tool, one that is still being improved and balanced against commercial desires to crack on. I understand the frustration for the workers stuck offshore but if this were January and Christmas wasn't around the corner I doubt it would be newsworthy. I doubt Santa checks the TL forecast though so hopefully Christmas is still on.

TL rules are driven by the regulator and customers. Crews just do what they're told by the Ops manual. Same as it always was I hope, certainly my 30+ years have been spent following the rules.

Must be a slow news day at the BBC. Next .....

TL isn't regulatory, tail wags dog

I don’t know where TL came from, but I come from the “have a go” generation, it seems a shame to me that this has gone, these days I fly in Africa, and we sometimes delay flights for weather but we have never lost a day…and nobody knows what TL is 🤣

2011/12 at request of UK O&G. I must admit it was news to me that Denmark bother with it. Norway are much more pragmatic.

Maybe talk to the crew of G-TIGK! The fact that you are talking about TL and Africa suggests you don’t know much about lightning. It is generated around the zero degree level, so by definition it has already been triggered naturally around 15,000 ft in Africa and you just observe it, but cannot be the trigger.

https://www.skybrary.aero/articles/helicopter-triggered-lightning-strikes

I didn't say regulatory, I said driven by the regulator. The rules we work with are not in regulation, but the Met Office tool and the associated ruleset are all put in place with CAA oversight, encouragement, etc.

212man makes reference to TIGK. This was the start of a very long journey. Some of the initial research was very interesting, including that TL was mainly "positive" rather than "negative" and carried much more energy than traditional lightning. The positive lightning strike energy far exceeded the certification requirements back in the 90s, and I suspect still does.

I remember HC telling me years ago that the ion trail from the exhausts was like flying along with several hundred metres of copper wire behind you!

My point was more of compliance being optional to the algorithm output, by optional I mean operators including it in ops manuals, not crews choosing to adhere.

I'm aware of more strikes trying to dodge outdated info rather than applying airmanship.

It's a planning tool and barely suitable even at the planning stage given the picture can radically change every 30 mins or so.

Even the operators got bored of it and wrote rules to operate around the red areas

​​​​​​​Whilst driving your pax to and from their normal place of work, and home. I’m sure they’d love to hear that. Do you expect the same when being flown with your family on holiday?

I'm confused why they are specifically mentioning Tyra II. It's an issue for all of Totals fields in the Danish sector, and has been ongoing the last two weeks. I've had colleagues stuck out there, as well as colleagues unable to go to a rig to perform a scheduled job.
There was also a prolonged period of time 2-3 years ago iirc.

I should clarify, that it was normal practice in the noughties for the customer to often request flights when the weather offshore was below ARA limits, as there was no approach ban, so yes we would “have a go” at the customer request.

I know, but I think the gamble of doing an ARA and diverting to Bergen is not quite the same as getting struck by lightning and ditching!

Sometimes that means the "Before we knew what we were doing generation."?

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I have been following the triggered lightning story because it affects availability for SAR training flights. The G-TIGK story already mentioned raised the conductivity issue and that has been mentioned by a number of people. The idea is that the changes in materials over the years has made susceptibility to TL damage worse because it affects the flow of an electrical charge around the airframe or can result in explosive vapourisation of materials. So those who say that 'we never had that in my day' may indeed be correct.

The change in manufacturing from traditional metal to composites and honeycombs has resulted in aircraft that are much more susceptible to significant damage when subject to a lightning strike. It's a well known phenomena that water is gradually absorbed into these structures over time. Introduce the massive energy of a lightning strike and the water than vaporises and expands, with the potential for some real and substantial damage. Add in the cost of replacing powertrain components following a strike and the corporate need to reduce risks and cost naturally kicks in.

S-61s used to get struck a lot, but apart from pinholes in blades nobody really blinked. I can remember seeing some very interesting photo’s of Bristow S76 blades when that was subject to a lightning strike and hobbled it’s way back into Aberdeen (I think it was Aberdeen).

The current TL MetOffice tool is a pain, mainly due to the lack of forecast stability. However it’s all we have and the real risks associated with being struck are only getting worse with modern aircraft.

You mean this one?

https://assets.publishing.service.go...nc_annexes.pdf

11 dead.

There exists a photograph of a Super Puma at Bergen that suffered a lightning strike to a main rotor blade. It blew a hole aft of the spar large enough for the chief engineer to put his head through it.
Wish I had kept a copy. This would have been circa 1995.

Not seen it but at a similar time we had one get struck flying back to Aberdeen. It was after GK and the crew prepared for the worst after the strike, only to find no effects and everything was smooth. After shutdown all four blades had holes the size of 20mm cannon shells!

Of course not - what crass post! The blades had been subjected to a lightning strike on a different airframe and then sent to the factory for inspection and recertification. This process failed to identify a latent defect from new, that had exacerbated the effects of the strike, but they remained undetected. Clearly, the aircraft that suffered the strike did ‘hobble’ home or it would have been clear that the blades were not salvageable.