Any chopper pilots about?

big b

Having retired a couple of years ago from 20 odd years on mainly North Sea oil rigs, something I never thought would happen - I actually miss the choppers!
Spent my last 10 years as Flight administrator for an American oil co., booking all the logistics, radio work, flight watch & information service etc. And 20 odd years bouncing about over the sea in Chinooks, S61 & S76 Sikorskys, Dauphins, Bell 212 (4 seater, used to sit next to the pilot!) but mostly Aerospatiale 322 Super Puma. (think I have all those numbers right!)
Literally hundreds of hours wearing immersion suits, lifejackets, ear defenders, latterly Personal Locator Beacons, flying low in proper sh*t weather, dodgy landings, diversions to Shetland Islands, Faroes, Norway, near disasters, actual disasters.

Happiness was catching your first sight of Peterhead power station chimney after 2 weeks of offshore life.
Eventful times, for ages I was so glad to be away from it. Kinda miss the chopper flights & banter with the pilots now though, sometimes.

So, any paraffin budgie jocks out there?:D

jmayo

You are better off going to http://www.pprune.org
and look at the Rotorheads forum.
There is always some interesting stuff in there and it is actual pilots in there posting, unlike on here. Actually you get quiet a number of pilots based right around the world in that forum, so there should definetly be a few guys operating with North Sea or the Gulf platforms.
check out the heli pics and heli video threads as well, some very interesting ones. They may be slow but the quality can be very good.

Also check out Flyer Magazine web forums, http://forums.flyer.co.uk/
I know there are few commerical heli jocks on there, not sure of anyone from oil industry?

big b

Thanks for that Jmayo.
I'll have a look.

electric69

im in Bristow Academy at the moment.hoping to do onshore work when i get back home.Maybe travel around a bit for a few years with my licences.Ill have a frozen JAA ATPL aswell as all my FAA licences.

Did you enjoy the offshore work?I know most of the guys from Norway are planning on doing the offshore work in the North sea.It doesnt really appeal to me at the moment.

big b

Electric,
I guess it all depends on what you're looking for.
North Sea offers regular work with fairly predictable hours. The chance to meet lots of pilots with work experience- and contacts- from many different places.
Also of course, the chance to develop skills landing on helidecks in absolutely sh*t weather & the joy of a 4 hour round trip bouncing around at 3000 feet!

On the whole, I'd say it'd be useful experience which would be good to have on your CV if you ever look for work overseas.

electric69

yea from what i hear the money isnt the worst on it.
I hope to finish my JAA IR when i get home (within 3years so ill have a full ATPL) and when ive that done i should be very employable for most big companies.I will actually be too young to have an "offically active" ATPL, but by the time im back home i will have reached the appropiate age (and min hours too), so im hoping my experience,licence and age will put me to the top of the queue