SIEM MARLIN MP Intervention Vessel

Bristow S76 Night Medevac Training Agbami FPSO

Bristow S92 to the Agbami FPSO Helideck

Family Fun in Cancun Mexico Feb 2009

Two weeks in a Mexican prison with red wine, howler monkeys, and an unlimited buffet. What more can you ask for?

Where were you?

Nick, the Chevron Nigeria Marine Advisor, asked several of us what appeared to be a difficult to answer question. When did you first fly (as a passenger) and what type of aircraft? The answer for me was easy because, for one, my father was a pilot, and secondly my mother retains the memory of the occasion with a picture of me in the cockpit. I was one year old and we were flying in a Norseman up to Norway House in Canada.

Surprisingly the other two guys at the lunch table remembered as well although they flew much later in life. They even remembered the type of aircraft they were passengers on including a Comet and a B707.

This memory jogging exercise reminded me of the other thought provoking question. Where were you the day President Kennedy was assassinated? That again was easy for me. I was 8 years old in a Grade 3 classroom in Lac du Bonnet. The spillover class, a result in the post baby-boomer bulge in the demographics that followed us through grade school, was held in the cold and drafty Anglican church next to the old school. Our teacher, Mr. Ketchur, was a young upstart with somewhat cavalier unorthodox methods of discipline such as nailing Billy Casper’s socks to the wooden floor to prevent him from “bugging” the girl sitting in front of him, and making the boys sit on the toilet for long periods of time for “indiscipline.”

I remember John Enright running in late for class and out of breath. He was often late, but usually excused, because his dad ran the local hotel and pub and often kept John working until the last minute after lunch. This time John burst in to announce that the American President had just been shot. Ketchur found a radio and we crowded around the live broadcast in the drafty church to hear the awful news. I have to admit that I don’t remember if I even knew who President Kennedy was at the time, but I certainly knew after that. Nov 1964.

BBC
Since then almost every aspect of the assassination has been disputed - it is not even clear how many shots were fired - but there is one thing most people are certain of; where they were when they heard the President was dead

We’ve had many such moment in our lives:

The day Cassius Clay defeated Sonny Liston. Feb 1964. Again crowded around the radio, this time with my dad in my parents bedroom. There were no chairs so we sat on the floor. My dad was thrilled that Cassius Clay had beaten the bear Sonny Liston but was upset when, the next day, Cassius Clay changed his name to Mohammad Ali.

The day Martin Luther was assassinated. April 1968. In the confusion of the ’60s I loosely associated his death with the Black Panther movement, communists, and religious zealots. I was coming in from recess at our new Centennial School when a fellow student made the announcement to our homeroom teacher Mrs. Hunchuck.

The day man landed on the moon. July 1969. The summer of ’69. I was at home watching the event on our black and white TV. Dad bought us a color TV later that year but I will always remember the moon landing as being a “black and white” event. I was surprised to later see the National Geographic pictures in color.

The day John Lennon was murdered. Dec 1980. Sorry, but I don’t remember where I was except Holly strongly remembers it happened one day before her birthday.

The day the Berlin Wall came down. Nov 1989. I was back in Nigeria after the birth of my son in April, but I don’t remember any particular day. I guess because it came down piece by piece I remember it as an event rather than a moment.

The day Ronald Reagan bombed Libya. April 1986. I was in Port Harcourt Nigeria and the local university students demonstrated against the bombing of their “African Brothers” by the American tyrants. The students marched down the road to our camp all dressed in black and hanging an effigy of Ronald Reagan by the neck. Later they burnt him. I was “trapped” and hiding in a dusty run down book store where the Nigerian owner took the opportunity to let me know “If I wasn’t buying any books he would have to ask me to leave.” Needless to say I kept buying books, actually Shakespeare’s King Lear and The Tempest, until the crowd disbursed and I could escape back to the fenced-in protection of our compound.

The day Nelson Mandela was freed from Robben Island. Feb 1990. Again, I was in Port Harcourt Nigeria. The university students demonstrated against the “white” American company I worked for not understanding that most American’s had not supported Apartheid.

The day hijacked airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center. I think this day of infamy is only second to the President Kennedy assassination. Sept 11th , 2001. I was in my hotel bedroom in Bali Indonesia. I was on a term contract training Indonesian pilots in the country with the world’s largest Muslim population. Although many of the Indonesians gloated over the attack the local Balinese sympathized with the victims. That was befitting as they too later became the victims. Holly was booked to come and join me in Bali and ended up flying out of Vancouver just days after the FAA flying ban was lifted. At the time of the attack I was watching a NBC business channel, as this hotel did not have CNN or BBC, when one of their reporters, in a building just across from the Twin Towers, reported an unusual explosion. The live feed showed the first building burning and I watched live as the second aircraft slammed into the tower. I phone Holly to see if she was watching and she then turned the TV on. We knew this moment was historic and horrific as the same time.

The day of the Bali Bombings. Oct 12th, 2002. Only a day and a month and a year after the Sept 11th attack on the World Trade Center. That fact I will always remember. Holly, Logan and I were at home in Seminyak Bali watching TV when we heard a huge explosion that shook our house, blew open a window, and rattled our main door. Holly had lived through the 12 curb and car bombings of Lagos Nigeria 1996-1997 bombing campaign as the militants had fought over political control of Nigeria and she knew by the sound of this blast that this was definitely a bomb. But, we had moved to one of the most peaceful areas of the entire world. We must have been mistaken. It must have been a gas depot explosion. The night air filled with sirens and the sky lit up with the glow of a raging fire. We decided to stay home and early the next morning I was called out to evacuate Americans from the island. I flew all day evacuating scared and confused expats to “safe” havens.

The day Barack Obama got elected President of the United States of America. Nov 2008.

The day Barack Obama was inaugurated as President of the United States of America. Today. In fact, only five minutes from now.

Today should go down in history, but hopefully for the right reasons. I can only say that the odds are against him as the march of destiny is filled with memories of the disturbing and painful. Let this particular memory-for-life be a good one.

Well I finally did it. Holly and I flew down to Titusville Florida for two weeks so I could finish my FAA Commercial Helicopter license. I flew 20 hours in 14 days and finished my regulatory requirements.

The weather was perfect but ironically the only pictures I took was during this downpour, and on the day Holly and I did some quality flying before my checkride.

I need to thank Maria, Gavin, and Logan for tuning me up for the ride. More on this later.

Our August Rush Ride on America’s Byways

Honda ST1300 Motorcycle Ride From Canada to Southern Colorado and Back.

The following Blog is a small sampling of the images we took on this trip. For the full story click on the Pages version “Canada to Colorado August Rush Ride 2008″ which includes the Google Maps of our entire trip.

We had a five stage mission that was going to tax our resolve. First we wanted to experience the Sturgis Harley Davidson Rally in South Dakota. Secondly we wanted to re-ride over the Bear Tooth Highway in Montana. Third we wanted to ride through the time worn Arches National Park. Forth, since grade school, I’ve wanted to explore Mesa Verde the home of the Ancients. And finally we were going to ride home along the San Juan Skyway and Top of the Rockies Highway. After Colorado, of course, we still had three days of riding through the beautiful Dakotas. We managed all five stages in our limited two week time frame by covering 8350 kms in 14 days of riding.

Day One - August 6th
Lac du Bonnet MB, Bismarck ND
825 km

Leaving Lac du Bonnet the weather was perfect and we made it to Bismarck ND the first day.

Day 2 - August 7th
Bismarck ND, Spearfish SD
Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway (Hwy 14A)
585 km

Holly booked us into the Spearfish Canyon Lodge. Fabulous location and great rooms but the Latchstring Inn Chef was not up to speed.

Colors of the Spearfish Canyon.

Riding the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Highway 14A.

Harley - Honda - Harley

Harley - Honda - Harley - Harley - Harley - Harley - Get the idea?

Spearfish Canyon Ride

The Spearfish Canyon Ride was an 80 kilometer long snake of Harleys.
It was like riding through Atlantic City during rush hour, except we were all having fun.

Pretty in Blue.

This is the best dog-gone rally I’ve ever been on!

“Ok, so when do I get a Harley”

Stage One
Day 3 - August 8th
Sturgis SD

68th Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally 2008

Harley-Davidson Sturgis Rally 2008 Photos
Link to Sturgis Rally Images posted by participants.

Orange County Choppers and their Spider Bike.

Holly and Willy. What more can I say?

Stage Two
Day 6 - August 11th
Beartooth Highway, Wyoming

Day 7 - August 12th
Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park
Jackson Hole
West Yellowstone, Mt to Rock Springs, WY
485 km

Hwy 20 / 14 West

Dead Indian Pass

East Yellowstone National Park Entrance

Stage Three
Day 9 - August 14th
Moab Utah

Arches National Park Utah

We got up early to ride through the Arches National Park in the morning light. Since we are dressed for motorcycle riding and not hiking I planned to visit the nearest two arches. Wall Arch and the Delicate Arch are well known and the most photographed of the 2000 odd arches in the park. We stopped at the park entrance and asked directions. The park ranger without even a hint of a smile told us that the area had been declared safe and that we would go in if we like. I asked him what he meant. He said the Wall Arch had collapsed several days ago. Holly and I had a good laugh over that one. After thousands of years the damn thing had decided to collapse just days before we arrived.

National Geographic News/2008/08/08

National Geographic Photogallery

Stage Four
Day 10 - August 15th
Mesa Verde Colorado

Mesa Verde Trail of the Ancients

Stage Five Homebound
Day 12 - August 17th
San Juan Skyway
Million Dollar Highway and the
Top of the Rockies Highway

Mesh jackets and shorty gloves just don’t cut it in this cold.

The final push north. We head to South Dakota.
Day 13 - August 18th
Wind Cave National Park - Custer State Park – Badlands National Park
Hot Springs, SD to Sioux Falls, SD
700 km

This is just a sampling of the images of our incredible
8350 km motorcycle ride.

For a larger selected set of Pilot’s Blog Book images from the entire trip click on the dedicated August Rush Ride 2008 Colorado to Canada Page in the top right hand corner of this page.

To view the entire set of ride images or to be able to download larger size images visit Travelographer

We were having a series of rain storms, but this one (actually two thunderstorm cells in a row) brought us a double rainbow that formed a perfect arching bridge we could see from start to finish. Unfortunately I could not get the entire rainbow in the images but I think you can get a feel for the beauty of the storm.

It left as quickly as it came with the after glow breaking out under the western clouds.

As an added bonus I have included pictures of my “BlueStorm” Suzuki GTX 1300 Hayabusa. The name, Hayabusa, comes from Japanese for Peregrine Falcon as they can both reach 200mph. I haven’t tried and I am not about to, but it is still a thrill to ride.

Logan and I took a ride to Pointe du Bois on the Sunday and met up with other riders from Winnipeg. Logan has a Honda CBR125 that looks amazingly like the CBR600.

For the rest of the images click on the Travelographer link below.

Lac du Bonnet June Storm 2008

I had an opportunity to attend the Eurocopter SAR conference in Brighton for June 3rd and 4th, 2008. At first Chevron was reluctant for me to attend as we were about to award a major SAR helicopter contract and it might appear that we would favor the bidder with the EC225 over the bidder with the S92. Eurocopter had gone to great lengths to promote this conference as a SAR conference and not just another opportunity to sell helicopters. I doubt if it was a coincidence, however, that all the presenters operated Eurocopters.

The main draw for me, at least initially, was that there was “users” and “supplier” who offered SAR specific presentations and in particular there was a representative from Bond Offshore Helicopters who operates the BP Jigsaw SAR contract. As we are about to set up our own similar SAR operation in Nigeria, with Chevron, Shell, ExxonMobil, and possible Total all involved, being able to learn from Bond’s experiences might prove to be invaluable.

I flew into Heathrow from Frankfurt and caught a National Express bus to Brighton. The bus service is brilliant, cheap (if you buy a return ticket with an open return date) and fast. Plus, you can read or sleep in relative comfort. I got to Brighton in less than 2 hours. The spring landscape was green and lush and as the bus was high enough I actually had a very scenic tour. I got off at the last stop and walked to the seacoast near the Brighton Pier.

My directions, for the hotel Eurocopter had booked us in, (at my expense) read “walk down to opposite the West Pier” and so I turned South while keeping to the boardwalk.

I was a bit confused on seeing the collapsed state of the West Pier, originally built in 1866, as I remember it being closed but still intact in 1988 when Holly and I had visited here before. Now it is just a rusting hulk. I find it disconcerting to see something that would be considered such an eyesore being left to rust. I would have thought someone or some-government would have elected to either take it down or restore it. Apparently there is a trust fund to help rebuild it but the construction has not started as yet. [1]

A very pleasant surprise, however, was the De Vere Grand Hotel of Brighton. “Grand”, in this case, meaning old (built in 1864) but still luxuriously remarkable. The most remarkable part was that it was bombed by the IRA in recent history.

The History
The Brighton hotel bombing was the bombing by the Provisional IRA of the Grand Hotel in the English resort city of Brighton in the early morning of October 12, 1984. The Irish republican organisation detonated two large bombs in the hotel where many politicians, including Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, were staying for the British Conservative Party conference. [1]

The IRA
Mrs Thatcher will now realise that Britain cannot occupy our country and torture our prisoners and shoot our people in their own streets and get away with it. Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to be lucky once. You will have to be lucky always. Give Ireland peace and there will be no more war.[2]

The Prime Minister
The bomb attack on the Grand Hotel early this morning was first and foremost an inhuman, undiscriminating attempt to massacre innocent unsuspecting men and women staying in Brighton for our Conservative Conference. Our first thoughts must at once be for those who died and for those who are now in hospital recovering from their injuries. But the bomb attack clearly signified more than this. It was an attempt not only to disrupt and terminate our Conference; It was an attempt to cripple Her Majesty’s democratically-elected Government. That is the scale of the outrage in which we have all shared, and the fact that we are gathered here now—shocked, but composed and determined—is a sign not only that this attack has failed, but that all attempts to destroy democracy by terrorism will fail.[3]

How soon we forget that not all terrorism comes from Muslims, but rather religious activists in general where, as in most circumstances, political fanatics hide behind religious rationale for killing innocent people. How far apart could the British and the Northern Irish have been? They were both Christians and both White and both islanders and both farmers and both much the same in so many ways. The extremes of Protestants to Catholics were no further apart then Upper Canadians to American Loyalists (both British Colonialists) or, for that matter, Border Collies to German Shepherds (both highly intelligent dogs originally bred for herding sheep) but neither the Catholics or the Protestants could see the other as being equal based on the differences of religious teachings.

I know I have heard a thousand times that the real war was over politics or economics and that it was all so difficult and confusing to understand, especially when you threw in terms like Unionist and Loyalists and Republicans and Nationalists, but in the end it was all crouched in the language and reasoning of religion. The Catholics hated the Protestants and the Protestants hated the Catholics and that was good enough justification for murder.

After all, religion is all about tribalism. “Thou Shall Not Kill” unless of course it is someone not of your tribe. To have a viable tribe, however, you need to control the land and resources. That, of course, was what the Old Testament was all about; God commanding his chosen ones to slaughter all in their way, including innocent and unsuspecting men, women and children in order to get to their God-given-land even if it occupied by someone else. Not much had changed since then.

And so after the bombing, which collapsed an entire section of the hotel through several floors, the owners, De Vere Hotels, decided to rebuild and refurbish the whole building in the original iconic Victorian style at a cost of £10 million. Historic British hotels must be restored to maintain their heritage value and so it was interesting to see how they had achieved the balance between the requirements of modern efficient and the decorum of Victorian charm. The theme continued through out the new wing as well and I couldn’t tell where it started or finished as the entire design blended so beautifully.

When entering from the Sussex seaside I immediately encountered a massive marble staircase climbing upwards to the next several floors. My room was small but very comfortable and nicely appointed. I couldn’t complain about the size as Eurocopter had negotiated us a discount rate, but it depended on us staying in these particular rooms.

One annoying problem I had was that the conference organizers had booked me for one night extra and the hotel wanted me to pay the bill in advance and in entirely. I agreed to pay with my credit card as long as they cancelled the last day’s payment. The hotel manager insisted that I had to pay as that I had not given them sufficient notice of cancellation. I tried to explain that I could not cancel what I did not know was booked and besides I am now giving them 48 hours notice to cancel the last day. They insisted that was not enough. My final argument was that since I had not yet given them my credit card and that they had no means to charge me I was not going to check in and or pay until they cancelled the payment for the final day that I was not going to use. Eurocopter finally had to step in and arbitrate.

After an evening stroll on the beach I attended the Eurocopter organized cocktail party and met a few other attendants. On the whole, I did not recognize anyone as this conference was slight off my beaten path.

The next morning we all piled into double-decker buses and were whisked away to the Brighton Racecourse built on the hillsides that surround Brighton.

After signing in Eurocopter took the morning to introduce us all to the event scheduled for the two day program and to their SAR helicopter range of equipment.

The French Eurocopter presenter, I missed his name, spoke about an ICAO level 4 of the holistic descriptors scale for “ability to understand”, but a brilliant level 6 for “use of idioms and nuisances.” In other words, I could hardly understand his French accent but what I did make out was hilarious and filled with humorous anecdotes. Big and hairy this guy reminded me of an old black bear tearing down a crap apple tree to get to the higher branches. He knew there was fruit just outside his reach and with great effort he can bring the fruit down to his level by tearing down the branches, but in the end with total disregard for the structure of the tree he had the best part of the tree to enjoy.

We were then given a presentation by the US Coast Guard Chief Instructor Dave Scott. I had not gotten much sleep the last few nights in Nigeria and so I dozed off during the “history’ of the USCG but woke up in time to appreciate some of the practical solutions they had made to their helicopter rescue operations over the years. Considering that the Coast Guard philosophy and funding is so different that what ours will be there was not really much I could take away from their presentation.

Worse yet was the presentation from the French Securite Civile. Not only was it drop dead boring, like watching the crap apple tree grow back its branches, but it was totally outside our scope of work. I wasn’t the only one who said that. The other attendants could not see where any of the information the Securite Civile gave would be useful for their operations. The scale of “how this does not apply to us” can be summed up in the moderator’s throw away comment “that they had to respond to every single call out that they get, even if a hiker sprains their ankle and calls in on their cell phone.” In other words, anyone with a cell phone can call for a rescue and expect a helicopter to show up. No wonder their number of helicopters and accumulated flight hours is totally over the top. Even Chevron could not afford that.

Another presentation which proved to be more useful for me was the workshop by Captain Madec that covered modules and programs for pilot training for helicopters such as the EC225 in SAR operations. I won’t go into that here but it certainly showed us what to expect in this field. Booking and conducting the training for SAR is a hot topic and this well thought out presentation certainly made the choices much clearer.

The two best presentations covered the French Air Force SAR and the Bond Offshore Helicopters SAR for BP in the North Seas. Both of the presentations were informative in that they showed us “how to” deal with SAR operations from different points of view. The French SAR showed us how the helicopter could, with auto-pilot, come down to land in zero visibility using a combination of GPS, Doppler radar, and Radar Altimeter. The CSAR Instructor Captain F. Arnaudon showed us a video of an EC725 landing in the near zero visibility of a desert “brown-out.” Even though in practice we could not do the same, at least we know that the helicopter and systems are capable of doing this feat.

In the end, Bond’s presentation was the most successful in that not only did it generate a lot relevant questions everyone commented on how useful and interesting it was. At the time of this conference they had been operational for over 2 years now which was enough time to figure out what works and what doesn’t. In fact, it was the things that they tried and failed at that were the most interesting. At least we won’t need to go there.

I was the last of the day to have the privilege of the demo flight. As from my pictures you can see I had a “Captains” eye view of the procedures as the Chief Pilot for Eurocopter demonstrated the EC225 SAR capabilities.

Ormec de Terre F-ZKCG

For all the images click on the Travelographer link below.

Eurocopter SAR Conference Brighton UK 2008

[1] http://www.westpier.co.uk/
[2]http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-central-history-brighton-hotel-bombing.htm
[3]Taylor, Peter (2001). Brits. Bloomsbury Publishing, p. 265. ISBN 0-7475-5806-X
[4]http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=105763