Blog

Sunday 5 February 2012 - I was sent on a HUET (helicopter underwater escape training) course a week or so back, every two years all rig personnel who work on offshore installations are put through this, basically theres a scale copy of a helicopter hanging over a pool which you are strapped into and the helicopter is then dunked in the water, they also add all kinds of debris and smoke to the water to make it feel like a real crash, the aim of the game is to escape the wreck before you drown, thankfully I am top heavy and float to the surface anyway, I did this four times over the two days from each different seat in the helicopter just to get a feel of what to do from each seat, I cant wait for the next one, yeah right!

Friday 3 February 2012 - I had a call about 4am telling me to get ready the chopper leaves in 30 minutes, and if you're not there you're swimming. So me being the terrible swimmer I am I got there in 25. The flight was pretty hairy but nothing I hadn't experienced before, a couple of the greenies decided to see what they had for dinner one more time though. The rig was pretty beat up when we arrived but within a couple of hours it was back to normal and ready for drilling.

Wednesday 1 February 2012 - I was meant to be back on the rigs by now but the weather was too bad for the choppers, we've had to take shelter in a hotel. But its not all bad, we've been using the companies credit cards to live lavishly while playing poker and watching re-runs of old bottom episodes, quite frankly I hope the chopper never returns, well maybe not never as I found I'm not very good at poker, yet I am very good at finding more money to play poker with.!