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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0320.PDF
FLIGHT, 23 March 1956 An Oil Well at Sea —is Served by Helicopters: Alan Bristow Describes Operations in the Persian Gulf A PARTICULARLY interesting description of his company's•'^current helicopter operations in the Persian Gulf was given by Mr. Alan Bristow at a recent meeting of the Helicopter Asso-ciation and, to illustrate his lecture, he showed a colour film depicting certain aspects of the operations. Two Westland Whirlwind helicopters were employed for thepurpose, owned by Shell and operated on their behalf by Bristow Helicopters, Ltd. They were based on Doha, where asmall heliport with hangar accommodation and a concrete apron had been built, and were used to carry passengers and freightbetween Doha and an oil-drilling rig located 50 miles out to sea. The helicopters made use of a specially constructed cantileverlanding platform attached to the side of the rig's structure. Measuring 50ft x 70ft, it was about 50ft above water level. During certain seasons of the year the state of the sea was suchthat marine craft could not go alongside the rig. For example, in February nearly 80 per cent of the days precluded the use ofsmall boats and the only link with the shore was by means of helicopter. The oil company suffered a loss of approximately£1,000 per day when the rig was not functioning normally, so the aircraft were playing a most important part in the progress ofthe drilling operations. This was the first occasion on which British commercial heli-copters had been engaged in regular flying in such extreme heat and high humidity, but they had been able to fly at an all-up weightof 7,200 lb without difficulty, giving a payload of a little over 1,320 lb. During die previous month they had carried over 300passengers and 26,000 lb of freight out to the rig. All passengers and crew wore life-jackets in flight and carriedshark repellent, since the waters of the Gulf were heavily infested. An additional precaution was the use on each Whirlwind of per-manently inflated pontoons in place of the wheeled undercarriage. This change involved a weight penalty of 25 1b, but by cuttingdown on the weight of other items of equipment which were not These photographs show, starting at top left, the complete rig—derrick, platform and piles—being transported on barges to its site (note the helicopter on deck); the flight deck under construction; one of the Whirlwinds on its handling trolley at the Doha base; and the other aircraft making a trial touchdown on the flight deck before the rig had been towed out to sea. (left) Buoys mark the 50-mile ferry route; the first, unnamed when operations began, is known as "Able Marker." Jf DRILLINGRIG necessary, 244 lb had been saved. One significant reduction hadbeen effected in the internal furnishing of the machines, which now consisted of lightweight Rumbold seats which, for eightpassengers, weighed only 83 lb. Radio communication was maintained at all times betweenthe helicopters and their base, while a link between the Doha telephone exchange and the Shell communications centre madeit possible to speak to anyone in Doha whilst flying to and from the rig. D/F. equipment was also provided to enable theaircraft to home on to the rig in conditions of poor visibility. As was only to have been expected, a number of difficulties hadarisen as a result of the adverse operating conditions, but these had all been overcome during the early progress of the operationand the schedules were now running smoothly. Special tech- niques employed to counteract the effect of sand abrasion on dierotor blades included washing down the machines thoroughly with distilled water at the end of each day's flying, and covering thepaintwork with a protective varnish. Mr. Bristow concluded his lecture by refuting the viewpointcommonly held that extensive helicopter operations, including those into city centres, must await twin-engined machines.
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