It’s a good thing I’m young, naive, and keen. I think that’s a decent combination for an offshore pilot being assigned to his first gig in Chittagong, Bangladesh. That said, I do get 5 - 7 days in THAILAND to prepare for the job. Brutal, huh?
We (the S76 crew of Captain Wade Ross, F/O yourstruely, and Engineers Mike Senuik and Mark Richer) are about 2 - 3 days away from departing Bangkok International and embarking on a cross-country helicopter flight over western Thailand, southern Myanmar (overnight stop), and into southeastern Bangladesh. Once in Bangladesh we will set up shop in Chittagong for our support contract with Cairn Energy, a UK oil-n-gas heavyweight conducting oil exploration in the Bay of Bengal. Dad, you would hate this stuff…tsk tsk.
It’s been all about planning, planning, planning. The logistics that go into getting an aircraft from Vancouver to Chittagong and ready for full customer support upon arrival in less than 2 weeks is enough to keep many people very busy. I’m filling the role of flight planning from Bangkok > Chittagong via Yangon……like a good co-pilot should be doing! It’s funny…..90% of the planning is going into the first 10% of the flight. That is, 1) find a way to get all this gear to Chittagong, 2) here’s how much fuel we need, 3) here’s the direction we have to point this thing, and 4) just how in the hell are we going to get this helicopter out of Bangkok International?!
Approximately 44hrs from best-case scenario departure time. Will update. Wish I had some pics to post on my virgin Flickr account but my camera crapped out on me while I was sitting on the tarmac in Vancouver. Will remedy.
