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Flight International Magazine - Bristow 25th Anniversary He attributes the success of Bristows to high-calibre staff, to a "beautifully balanced" fleet, and to his own practical helicopter experience. He says he personally gave instructions for S-61N cruising speed and rotor r.p.m. to be limited after an all-up weight increase. To this action - which he says was followed by other operators, including British Airways - he attributes the fatality-free British S-61N record, compared with 50 or more fatalities in foreign S-61N operations. Bristow Helicopters has lost only one passenger in 12 years of North Sea offshore operations. This was during the ditching of an S-58T which suffered a tail-rotor failure just as it was about to land on a small offshore flight deck. "The Bristow and British Airways Helicopters safety records are the best in the world," he says. The company now has about 200 helicopters. US operator Petroleum Helicopters Inc probably has a more numerous fleet, but a much smaller total capacity. Formed in 1953 with two S-55s and the same directors, Bristow Helicopters Group now employs about 3,000 people, of whom 400 are pilots. Alan Bristow claims that his company "pays more, offers better loss-of-licence pilot insurance, provides broader career opportunities and promotes on merit rather than on seniority." Asked about the company's financial performance, AB replies: "We made £10 million profit last year. As a private company detailed accounts are our affair." Bristows is controlled and owned by Alan Bristow, by his senior partners George Russell Fry and Jack Woolley, and by British and Commonwealth Shipping and Eagle Star Insurance. With Alan Bristow since the 1950s have been Fry, managing director, ex-RAF pathfinder and still an active pilot; Woolley, technical director, active pilot as well as professional engineer; Alistair Gordon, operations director, also both engineer and pilot; and Bill Petrie, engineering director. The chairman's son, Laurence Bristow, has a Commercial Helicopter Pilot's Licence and served two years as a North Sea pilot with the company. He is now North Sea and USA regional director, based at Redhill. Alan Bristow emphasises the international character of his company. "We are in 14 countries, with some companies independently controlled by overseas boards. We have Americans in charge of British, Indonesians in charge of British, and an Austrian running our operations in Nigeria. The engineering manager here at Redhill is French. In our pilot force we nave many nationalities, including Yemenis, Singalese, Nigerians and Indonesians." A new US company, United Helicopters Inc, based at Hartford, is flying two Bell 212s out of Atlantic City for Mobil. Its objective is to increase US-based offshore oil operations. Bristows are first and foremost a service company to the oil and gas industries, flying men, equipment and supplies to onshore and offshore drilling and production rigs; performing geographical surveys with specialised equipment; and operating helicopters as aerial cranes wherever surface transport is difficult or impossible - dense jungles, precipitous mountain areas and so on. For ten years Bristows have worked in Indonesia, principally in the aerial-crane role, in which it is not uncommon for each Bell 205 to fly 150hr a month. A Wessex in Ecuador has been flying 260hr a month. A relatively new activity is gas-line patrol, the biggest contract being with the United Kingdom Gas Board. Another is servicing lighthouses and light vessels for the Northern Lighthouse Board. Alan Bristow regrets losing the Air Sea Rescue Service, which was based at Manston, recalling: "We had to hand this task over to the Royal Air Force just after we had won the Coastguard Award of the Year." The second major activity is training pilots, civil and military, for
British and foreign helicopter operators. These include the British Army,
at whose Middle Wallop base Bristows have for 15 years trained soldiers
to fly Chipmunks and Bell 47s to basic "tactical" standards. The company
also has a contract to train 15-20 pilots a year for its friends and rivals
British Airways Helicopters. In return, Bristow pilots will use British
Airways' S-61N simulator. "Helicopter University" The company has shut down its cropspraying activities. "Cropspraying is not profitable," declares Alan Bristow. "It is too seasonal and too competitive with fixed-wing aircraft. The helicopter does some jobs better, but it is an expensive under-utilisation of high-capital-cost equipment." What about Bristows' helicopter equipment, the most important part of
the organisation? "Wrong. It all turns on people first," says Alan Bristow.
"People, ideas, machines and management equals success. If you haven't
got the right people it doesn't matter how good the machines are. Having
said that, I would say that our fleet has to cover a remarkably wide range
of requirements and I think it is beautifully balanced." He reels off
his fleet, without reference to his papers or squawk box, as follows:
24 Sikorsky S-61N Mk 2 (up to 24 seats); 10 Aerospatiale SA.330J Pumas
(19 seats); 14 Westland Wessex 60 (16 seats); 6 Sikorsky S-58T-6 (16 seats);
35 Bell 212 (14 seats); 15 Bell 205 (14 seats); 1 MBB B0105 (4 seats);
25 JetRanger (4 seats); 14 Whirlwind (8 seats); 14 Bell 47G-4A (2 seats);
10 Hiller 9C: (2 seats); 10 Sikorsky S-76 on order (14 seats); 3 Britten-Norman
Islander (10 seats); 2 Twin Otter (16 seats); 1 HS.125-700 (8 seats). Teething Troubles Over The Bell 212s are medium-range inter-rig vehicles with two-blade rotors which make for easy stowage, on the offshore flight decks. The Bell 205s come in very useful as cranes, and the JetRangers as onshore "jeeps". The Whirlwinds, in addition to training, are used in the Gulf and Nigeria for offshore ranges of up to 80 miles with eight seats and floats. The, Bell 47s are used for pipeline work as well as for pilot training. Alan Bristow is enthusiastic about the Sikorsky S-76, of which his company has ordered ten. "I dived one up to 210kt, and the vibration is about like, a Navajo. It handles like a Spitfire." The S-76 will carry 12 passengers in a fully IFR North Sea configuration, including flotation gear, radar, DME and so on. The S-76 is fast, with a plastic and titanium rotor system with less than half the moving bits, which, Bristow says, means less corrosion and lower operating cost. "The S-76 is not just a movement up in speed but also promises a significant reduction in maintenance costs and long component lives. The composite rotor blades should remove a major area of rotor fatigue." Bristows' first S-76 will be delivered next April and five will be in service by the end of May. Alan Bristow says he is proud of his company's record as a technology
innovator: "We were the first with radar, the first to fit external dinghy
stowage, the first with overturn lifelines, and the first to start helicopter
instrument flying [in the Antarctic in 1953]." Why hasn't Bristow ordered
Boeing Chinooks, like British Airways Helicopters? "I have a total belief
that we shouldn't increase the number of people we carry in large units
over the North Sea. I also believe that we should be going forward into
new technology. I don't think, like Brand X, that the Chinook is the best
solution." What about the economics of unit cost, which throughout transport
history has always been reduced by bigger vehicles? "Your transport economics
are not correct for the helicopter business," replies Alan Bristow. "We
can do, the job much more flexibly with the S-76. At $1.4 million each
we can buy six or seven for the, price of one Chinook. The S-76 is 30kt
faster and more economic when you have to discharge and redistribute personnel
and equipment among satellite rigs." SILVER STATISTICS Brand X wants, to use Chinooks, he says, to bypass Sumburgh. "We agree about the hang-ups there but we say put Sumburgh right and use the right size of helicopter. Now, I believe, Sumburgh is putting its house in order." He thinks that British Airways wants the Chinook as an eventual London-Paris vehicle. The smaller helicopter, he claims, is safer in a ditching. "Ditching a helicopter in the North Sea is a very hazardous business indeed. Getting 44 people out of a helicopter before it turns over - and all helicopters have poor stability in water, without exception - is not going to be easy. The Wessex and Puma are the best, because their tails act as keels and they turn into wind, but the S-61 and the Chinook are shallow and roll over easily in rough sea conditions." Is Bristow saying that there is a moral limit to the size of helicopter that can be used in the North Sea? "The number of ditchings caused by engine failure in twin- engined helicopters can be discounted. Engine reliability is not the principal safety criterion - it's fire, main and tail rotor integrity, transmission reliability. What is needed is maximum, buoyancy and survivability to buy time: to get everybody out. In rough weather the S-61N is not going to stay upright with a keel drawing nine inches of water. It is not stable." Development potential of the S-76 was also a factor in Bristow's choice. When the military Black Hawk Uttas is developed, Alan Bristow says a commercial fuselage can be hung on the same power and rotor system to make the S-70 civil version with double the gross weight - from 10,0001b to 20,0001b - and perhaps up to 24 compared with 12 passengers. What does Bristow think about the Bell 222? "It's a very nice helicopter to fly, but it doesn't fit into our pattern. We don't think that it is an oil-industry helicopter. The internal volume, door access and nose-up attitude on landing make it less attractive for offshore work. It is better suited to the executive role. Its remarkable crashworthiness, inherited from its military forebears, inevitably effects payload, while the two-blade main rotor means higher vibration and blade noise. Noise affects us as well as the airlines." After the recent Norwegian Helikopter Service S-61N fatal accident,
says Alan Bristow, a previous failure involving a US Coast Guard S-61R's
sleeve and spindle assembly came to light. Miraculously, the component
was recovered. According to Alan Bristow, Sikorsky had not told any S-61N
operator about the Coast Guard failure. "My safety message to the manufacturers
is this: stop covering up your faults. Tell us your problems. Don't conceal
them. The helicopter industry has had five S-61N accidents in the last
five years, at least three of which have been unexplained. Before Petroleum
Helicopters Inc in the USA suffered their fatal Puma accident, in which
three out of five on board were killed, there had been three previous
military Puma fatalities caused by engine-input gear-drive failures, and
another to a civil Puma in Gabon." Alan Bristow says that Aerospatiale
did not notify the industry of the hazards, "even though they had the
modified parts in manufacture when civil airworthiness action was taken.
If I had known about the Puma accidents I would not have ordered Pumas.
It is totally wrong of the manufacturer not to have told us. People had
to be killed in a fifth incident before we were told. We don't buy the
excuse that it is different because it is a military helicopter." He alleges
that before a Bell 212 crash near Abu Dhabi there had been three US Navy
transmission failures, none of which was notified by Bell to civil operators.
"We say to manufacturers: take us into your confidence. We are pioneering.
Tell us. We are the lead-time people." Fatality Free S-61N Record Alan Bristow believes that British S-61N operations have been fatality-free because of operating limitations pioneered by Bristows. It was agreed with British Airways and the UK Civil Aviation Authority to limit operating speeds and rotor r.p.m. following a weight increase from 19,0001b to 20,5001b which took rotor speed to over 100 per cent. Bristows ran trials at Southend following the KLM and Greenlandair accidents -"since when," says the chairman, "we have not flown in excess of 100 per cent." This was where, he says, his test-flying background stood him in good stead (he was a Westland test Pilot in 1947- 1949). The combination of higher speed and higher weight, Alan Bristow believes, increased S-61N rotor stresses. The Norwegian, Dutch and the Greenlanders were apparently using the higher rotor r.p.m. (104 per cent plus). "We have had no fatal rotor failures among British operators because, I believe, we fly more slowly and use lower rotor r.p.m." He recalls a Bristow S-61N ditching resulting from vibration so bad that control was lost. The aircraft was put down safely in 30ft waves, and the occupants (and aircraft) recovered. The blades came off in the sea, but are said to have been attached on impact. Bristows, incidentally, have their own rescue and salvage crews, including frogmen trained to save occupants and, where possible, aircraft. Alan Bristow is worried about air traffic control situation in the North Sea area. He says that if he had been an Atco at Sumburgh he would have led a strike. "They are understaffed, underequipped, overworked and underpaid. I am surprised what a good job they do despite their conditions of employment and the appalling low-flying behaviour of military aircraft." Ten Pumas have been through Bristows' engineering department for blade modifications since November 1977. At present in the, shops is a 212 being overhauled for BEAS, a subsidiary company, and a 212 is being rebuilt for another operator after an accident. The decision to buy an HS.125-700 (delivered on August 18) makes Bristows a jet operator for the first time. The company already has two Twin Otters and three Islanders for passenger-cargo work in Nigerian oil operations. The HS.125-700 is being modified by Bristows' engineering department into a "combi" configuration so that it can be used for carrying equipment as well as personnel, giving the company greater independence of scheduled air services. The HS.125 will probably be based most of the time at Aberdeen, carrying palleted engines, rotor heads and other helicopter spares and components. Four containers can be quickly swapped for the normal eight passenger seats. Bristows looked at the Falcon 20 and LearJet as well as at the Gulfstream II and F.28 before deciding on the HS.125-700. The operational requirements for the jet is to move people and spares to the "energy bases" quickly and at times to suit Bristows rather than the scheduled airlines. "I have never been able to understand why British Airways has not introduced an Aberdeen shuttle," says Alan Bristow. The company's people were being constantly off-loaded "and this is no use when you have to be at meetings with customers. You have to be there when you say you'll be there, not when an airline thinks you should be there." Is the Civil Aviation Authority Bristow-approved? Replies the chairman: "We have a very high regard indeed for their competence. They have a better approach to airworthiness than any other agency we have ever dealt with. The calibre of the people is tops, though we are not so sure about who will succeed them." There can be no doubting the calibre of Bristows, staff. Though they seldom see their achievements recognised in the media - especially their North Sea energy efforts - they are, obviously all very proud of themselves and their company in its 25th year. J. M. RAMSDEN Before printing the above interview with Alan Bristow we offered the
parties concerned the opportunity to reply. Two have replied as follows; "The Commercial Chinook is backed by the maturity of 1.5 million Chinook flying hours. It will incorporate reliability improvements being made to the US Army's CH-47D, which will fly early in 1979." National Air Traffic Services Controller (Bill Woodruff) "As for pay, Shetland is a high-cost area and we have recently received UK Government approval to pay increased allowances to staff at Sumburgh. This should help to make it a more attractive posting". "By next summer we shall have spent, since the oil rush started, over £30 million at this aerodrome. Much of this, as well as the costs of day-to-day running, will have to be recovered from the airline operators there. I hope Alan Bristow will not complain at the consequent enormous increase in helicopter landing charges to apply next year, which are shortly to be announced." "As far as military flights are concerned, we have an ATC cell at the
Scottish Centre which co-ordinates civil and military activities. It seems
to be working well but, if there are criticisms, we would like to hear
about, them directly." |