Well yes, you certainly paid attention all the time ! We flew in some really awful weather with dire visibility quite often. Funny how you get good at the job though. We could talk to ATC, listen to radio 4 and do the job which was basically following buried pipeline which you couldn't see, so we were navigating using OS maps for the line which was a metre wide and flying maps for the flying aspect and talking to each other both about the work and personal items. The winter was a pain though, as we needed all the daylight hours to carry out the survey work, So we would get airborne while it was still dark, usually from the back of a hotel or a farm B+B and position to our start point. In the middle of the day we would stop for a rotors turning refuel, And usually stick the fuel in ourselves, another 100 gallons of avtur for the next 3.5 hrs flying. We had range extenders fitted to increase the fuel capacity! Mainly Jet Ranger, squirrel and some Hughes 500 C,D and E Then home to our overnight and off again in the morning. It was a pain though as you could only have a mouthful of tea at breakfast as you didn't get out all day and have you ever tried having a pee under the rotor wash of a helicopter.....don't try it! Just for information, there are six permanent aircraft flying the gas lines in the uk and every piece of high pressure line is inspected every 2 weeks.
It all seems like a dream now and the time has condensed into what feels like a fortnight, maybe even a long weekend and it was in fact 8,500 flying hours and all hands on! I n the end I just got sick of not going home, in the winter often for weeks on end then the kids came along and I knew I had to change my life totally! But that's for another day!
Last edited by sewin; 10/01/25 03:58 PM.
