Reflections of an Oil & Gas Helicopter Pilot

Cockpit life flying oil & gas helicopters offshore in atrocious weather is vividly conveyed when Captains discretion explored an environment with winds and waves exceeding 90knots/feet respectively to destinations unsuitable for weathering the storms, when it could be dangerous to make an approach and land on some production platforms or to semi-submersible flotels moored in their lee or to drilling rigs with clad derricks generating extreme turbulence; where anything goes so long as you can account for your actions. Into this environment extracts from accident reports of aircraft ditching, breaking up or simply crashing. Then to the South China Sea with an interpreter on the cockpit jump-seat and a drillship lost with all hands, Heathrow/Gatwick, and Penzance/Scillies Links, operating to the oilfields of the Mumbai High, India, Norway and to Shetland and the last voyage of an oil tanker promising an environmental disaster, offshore as shuttle pilot West of Shetland and the Danish gas fields, finally to the Baltic Sea - Finland and Sweden (Nord Stream 1). All the time, the pilots trying to improve their lot against the odds with industrial actions, looking for lost pensions and savings, being fired twice in one week by Robert Maxwell, or simply being made redundant for being too old and proving otherwise in a tribunal by flying in parts of the world with extreme temperatures where Western tourists don’t go: the Kashagan in the Northern Caspian, Kazakhstan and Kish Island, Iran where he flew with ’Angels’. The narrative revolves around companies where the author was employed: Bristows, British Airways Helicopters, British International, CHC, Gulf Helicopters and Bristow International, with some background accounts of these crews. Then a nine-year career writing operations manuals for international Aircraft Operating Certificates (AOCs), culminating with six on the UK Search and Rescue (SAR) Standards Transition Team as sole editor/auditor with the award of their own AOC. And part-time successfully developing stealth coatings for aircraft, including the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter. This is a part historical journal, part travelogue built around the autobiography of a helicopter pilot flying medium and heavy helicopters offshore for 38 years beginning in 1975 when the UK oil boom was just taking off. To be enjoyed by the aviation community, the Oil & Gas industry, and those with a spirit of adventure. How the fortunes of these interdependent organisations developed, particularly on the North Sea, from a censored, unreported world, before immersion suits and the rope around the hull to hang onto after ditching, to the introduction of safety measures, procedures and practices taken for granted today.