Return to Bristow Bases

..........Bristow Base: Papua New Guinea.

Thanks to Andrew Rice for his input on this base.

PNG began for Bristow in 1985, when Pacific Helicopters bought a Puma from
Bristow Australia. They had been contracted to provide helirig support for
Gulf Oil, which later became Chevron. Initially two SA330J Pumas were
required, one each from Bristow and Pacific. These were initially based at
Tari, in the central highlands, 5,000 ft above sea level. Several BV107
helicopters from Columbia Helicopters shared the same facilities.

Crews worked 3 weeks on 3 weeks off and crew change flights arrived from
Cairns in Australia. The rigs were drilling in the mountains and varied between
3,000ft and 9,000ft AMSL. In May 1986 the operation moved to Poroma,
also 5,000ft AMSL. As there was no airstrip, crew change flights arrived at
Mendi and the crews were transferred by helicopter.

In August 1986 the Bristow Puma VR-BIG was released from contract along
with a number of BHL staff, but some Bristow crew remained to assist the
Pacific staff fly and maintain their aircraft. Several other oil companies
started operations in 1988 and in November that year Pacific bought two
more Pumas from PHI (P2-PAY and P2-PAZ). The three aircraft continued
to operate at various bases around the country, mainly in the highlands, and
flew a considerable number of hours each month. Pilots could expect to fly
100 hours in their three weeks of duty.

In January 1988 the operations changed to using long line and vertical
reference techniques, requiring considerable pilot training.

Bristow did have a brief operation for Shell drilling in the Sepik River
region in the PNG lowlands using one Bell 212 and a Tiger. Over the years
the amount of flying began to reduce, and this became a dramatic reduction
when Russian built aircraft began to work in PNG, lifting higher loads at
considerably lower costs. The KA32 was able to lift almost twice the useful
load of a Puma. The final Bristow crew left PNG in January 1991.

PNG operations seem to have been scattered
around the countryside with the pictures having
locations such as Tari, Paroma,Kikori and Sepic
River. The contracts involved supplying technical
and operational support to Pacific Helicopters for various clients and
using types such Bell 212, Puma, Tiger and Hughes 300 as can be seen
below.

Pumas P2-PHZ and VR-BIG (Bristow colours) at
Tari.




Bell 212, P2-PHJ at Sepic River 1987.
This aircraft is sporting the Bristow and Pacific names.




Bush operation with Puma P2-PAY at Kikori River late
eighties.




Hughes 300 also at Kikori.





AS 332L Tiger P2-PHP location unknown.




Poroma base camp circa 1986.





Crew change at Mendi circa 1987.





Gearbox change with rainbow and
hangar boys at Poroma circa 1986.





Cement hopper over Lake Kutabu
circa 1986.





P2-PHZ at O'Malley Peaks relay
station, 11,000ft AMSL, 23rd May 1986.





AS 330 Puma underslinging materials
to a typical rig site. 1985.