Not just a job, it's an adventure
To finalize my long stream of posts about the last trip, I should mention crew change as it was definitely an interesting bit of adventure.
Since getting involved in the project in the Gulf of Mexico, I had never seen a chopper arrive before noon. Since I had worked a 19 hour shift the day before, I went to bed with my alarm set for the time I would normally get up of 9:00. About 8:30 the intercom in my cabin went off and I heard "Dave are you awake?" My response was "No" to which I was then informed that the chopper would be there in about 15 minutes. So I quickly got up, dressed forgoing the shave and shower I had planned and packed up my last few bits to get ready to go. Sure enough the chopper didn't arrive until 9:30, but still that was much earlier than normal.
We left the Viking to go the 100 meters or so to the Falcon which is one of the gun boats for the survey which also has the ability to fuel the chopper with some jet fuel. We took off about 10:00 for the approximate 2 hour flight to Galveston. Because of the weather we had to stop at a production platform about half way to Galveston in order to get more fuel. While we were there, the pilots checked the weather and Galveston was socked in with thunderstorms. (Only figured since at the Viking while waiting for the chopper the air was dead calm and I worked up a sweat just waiting in the reception area.) Anyway as things would have it, we spent almost 5 hours on that platform because there was the storm over Galveston heading our way while another storm front had been coming up from Mexico to meet it. Just off Galveston was where the two storm fronts were rushing to meet. As an aside, the two guys on the platform were real glad to have some company though as they were half way through their time offshore and were tired of just each other for company. I must say that the extended every hospitality and were a credit to their cajun upbringing. :)
We finally did take off from the platform about the same time as my original flight was supposed to leave from Houston to head home. (And I had thought with the early chopper I might be able to change flights and get home early, go figger!) About 10 minutes out from Galveston, the chopper did a serious lurch to the side, dropped about 50 feet and accelerated 40 knots and my immediate thought was "Oh great we are going swimming!" The pilot quickly got the chopper back under control, however, and we landed only slightly shaken and not stirred at Galveston. The crewing coordinator made arrangements for us all to have later flights, and I borrowed one of my crew mate's phone to call Deb who was already at the airport about the change in flights. (What I didn't realize, and she found out before I did, was that my 1:10 minute direct flight had to be changed to two 55 minute hedge hopping flights with about 30 minutes of layover in Dallas. The flight from Hobby in Houston was what I have come to expect from Sucksworst errr Southwest Airlines being full and leaving 20 minutes late. The flight from Dallas was also late in leaving, though only 20 minutes late and actually arrived in Tulsa on time a 22:15 (an absolute first for me and flying SWA)!
Anyway, I managed to get home safe and sound late Wednesday night and got to slowly but surely get prepared for the ridiculous weather we have had at home since I got here. Oklahoma is supposed to have mild winters and rarely get snow. Though the largest snowfalls in the Tulsa area's history have happened in mid to late March, it just isn't supposed to snow in April, yet we had very heavy flurries on Saturday and I was wondering if we were going to have a white Easter! As it turns out, it has been cold and dreary since but at least the weather has been warm enough that the temperature shock was not as great as when I used to go from Oklahoma winters to Brazilian summers. Still it was a shock to my system, perhaps my body is not so well insulated as it used to be.
Since getting involved in the project in the Gulf of Mexico, I had never seen a chopper arrive before noon. Since I had worked a 19 hour shift the day before, I went to bed with my alarm set for the time I would normally get up of 9:00. About 8:30 the intercom in my cabin went off and I heard "Dave are you awake?" My response was "No" to which I was then informed that the chopper would be there in about 15 minutes. So I quickly got up, dressed forgoing the shave and shower I had planned and packed up my last few bits to get ready to go. Sure enough the chopper didn't arrive until 9:30, but still that was much earlier than normal.
We left the Viking to go the 100 meters or so to the Falcon which is one of the gun boats for the survey which also has the ability to fuel the chopper with some jet fuel. We took off about 10:00 for the approximate 2 hour flight to Galveston. Because of the weather we had to stop at a production platform about half way to Galveston in order to get more fuel. While we were there, the pilots checked the weather and Galveston was socked in with thunderstorms. (Only figured since at the Viking while waiting for the chopper the air was dead calm and I worked up a sweat just waiting in the reception area.) Anyway as things would have it, we spent almost 5 hours on that platform because there was the storm over Galveston heading our way while another storm front had been coming up from Mexico to meet it. Just off Galveston was where the two storm fronts were rushing to meet. As an aside, the two guys on the platform were real glad to have some company though as they were half way through their time offshore and were tired of just each other for company. I must say that the extended every hospitality and were a credit to their cajun upbringing. :)
We finally did take off from the platform about the same time as my original flight was supposed to leave from Houston to head home. (And I had thought with the early chopper I might be able to change flights and get home early, go figger!) About 10 minutes out from Galveston, the chopper did a serious lurch to the side, dropped about 50 feet and accelerated 40 knots and my immediate thought was "Oh great we are going swimming!" The pilot quickly got the chopper back under control, however, and we landed only slightly shaken and not stirred at Galveston. The crewing coordinator made arrangements for us all to have later flights, and I borrowed one of my crew mate's phone to call Deb who was already at the airport about the change in flights. (What I didn't realize, and she found out before I did, was that my 1:10 minute direct flight had to be changed to two 55 minute hedge hopping flights with about 30 minutes of layover in Dallas. The flight from Hobby in Houston was what I have come to expect from Sucksworst errr Southwest Airlines being full and leaving 20 minutes late. The flight from Dallas was also late in leaving, though only 20 minutes late and actually arrived in Tulsa on time a 22:15 (an absolute first for me and flying SWA)!
Anyway, I managed to get home safe and sound late Wednesday night and got to slowly but surely get prepared for the ridiculous weather we have had at home since I got here. Oklahoma is supposed to have mild winters and rarely get snow. Though the largest snowfalls in the Tulsa area's history have happened in mid to late March, it just isn't supposed to snow in April, yet we had very heavy flurries on Saturday and I was wondering if we were going to have a white Easter! As it turns out, it has been cold and dreary since but at least the weather has been warm enough that the temperature shock was not as great as when I used to go from Oklahoma winters to Brazilian summers. Still it was a shock to my system, perhaps my body is not so well insulated as it used to be.