By Brenton G Davis 

It is ironic really, that the very colour when uttered from the lips of your accountant spells disaster, offers diversity, opportunity and prosperity for many helicopter operators. If red is your colour, and helicopters are your thing, then the great red expanse of North-West WA is probably providing you with quite a good living.

It is no secret to anyone who extends their gaze beyond the confines of our capital cities, that Western Australia is literally overflowing with natural resources. For decades the earth and ocean have been tapped in the West for their precious riches and, by the look of the area lately, it’s really just getting started. As our country’s largest State, with a land mass greater than dozens of European countries, the areas of opportunity are enormous. With a relatively tiny population gathered into the lower western corner however, what that all amounts to is vast tracts of remote land with very little infrastructure. Enter the helicopter. It is true that you can find helicopters in densely populated areas doing a variety of tasks but where the helicopter does, and always will, triumph is where there is no other viable form of transport or utility machinery capable of effecting the desired result. Helicopters do their best work in remote areas assisting a variety of specialised industries and North-West WA is a prime example.

There are helicopters of virtually every size and shape spread all over Western Australia. And whilst some operators and pilots are tied to fixed base operations, there are a multitude of others that are transient by nature. In a country where the industry was typified not so long ago by older, well recognised types with long and distinguished histories, the flavour nowadays is a much more modern menu with new and expensive helicopters adorning many remote airports. But the stalwarts of the industry are still there. Buzzing around in the trees and gullies all over the state, R22s continue to pry stubborn beasts out from under the foliage and hustle them towards the holding yards. Mustering by helicopter is as popular as ever and quite regularly, especially at this time of year, small local airports will see two, three or more machines arriving for their scheduled maintenance alarmingly often. The hours flown by these machines and pilots put many ‘seasoned’ professional pilots to shame. It’s a refreshing slap back to reality to see these machines whizzing onto the tarmac with fresh young pilots, male and female alike, in control, adorned in a pair of R.M.Williams jeans and Blundstones with their swag propped casually in the left seat.

Often in the same parts of the countryside, the R22’s bigger brother, the R44, is also kept busy. The 44 has won favor in many parts of the industry where Frank Robinson would not have dreamed his design would prosper. The ability to take one or two passengers and still carry a load of samples all at a much reduced operating cost has seen many an R44 get dirty for extended periods. Gravity Survey has been popular with this particular type of helicopter used for gathering soil samples at close and regular spacings. The pilot is kept busy with machines performing landings up to every few hundred metres as the “geo’s” fill their sample bags along a pre-determined line for closer examination back at camp. As the desert temperatures climb and ambient winds are lost at low level, the work can be very demanding on both pilot and aircraft. It is, however, a fantastic experience for newer pilots to gain valuable bush flying knowledge. A few hours of this type of work just cannot be compared to straight and level ferry flying for its learning capacity.

Helicopters only end up at ground level doing the business end of the deal after extensive other aviation involvement. The invisible lines in the sand which are plotted and flown meticulously on GPS’s and light-bars, only exist after extensive exploratory work by other aviation assets. Flying high over the deserts and wastelands of the Australian outback, aero-magnetic surveys are plotted by highly specialised fixed-wing aircraft. From large multi-engine aircraft which deploy tow-able electronic buoys in-flight, down to highly modified C210s, the vast emptiness of our country has been criss-crossed, photographed, and technically interpreted by countless flights over the years. When the results come in, another group of specialists interpret the data, produce the maps and plan the next phase.

Oftentimes, the results are thought promising enough to employ helicopters once again to refine the findings. Yet another specialist use of rotary wing capability is then employed; the Electro-Magnetic Survey. Often referred to as the ‘clothes-line’, a massive aerial is towed beneath a chopper, usually a Squirrel, to give even more accurate results. Again, the flying is demanding, although in this case it is not take-offs and landings which test the pilot. The survey requires slow accurate tracking of precise grids over the target area. The ‘bird’ must be towed at a slow, consistent speed of around 45 knots within a very small tolerance field of both height AGL and sideways displacement. With massive tracks of land to cover, the flying requires long days and a strong emphasis on the pilot’s ability to fly accurately for extended periods. The transient nature of this work will usually involve the helicopter and crew making their way across inhospitable parts of the country camping along the route with a well supplied ground crew providing back-up and facilities.

Still on the exploration side of the equation, some helicopters are kept busy providing transport solutions to the many small pockets of workers dotted throughout the wilderness. Tiny camps, often one or two trailers and a few tents, are the only tell-tale signs of companies investing big dollars in what they hope lies beneath the surface. Drill-rigs most times go hand in hand with such camps and will be drilling a series of holes within a set distance from their food and rest facilities. Because of the remote nature of this work, access is often only by the very tracks which they create themselves to get there. These can often be a six, eight or even ten hour rough and bumpy drive from the closest town and airport. Crew changes, accordingly, are done by helicopter to expedite change-overs and keep the all important workers on-site rather than en-route. Key geologists, management, owners and medical support is all usually flown to site when time is of the essence.

The real money comes into play though when exploration is finished and production begins. The Hamersley region of the north-west has been serving up iron-ore and its associated metals for over 40 years. So developed and involved are the various mine sites that their remoteness has led companies to build dedicated airports to service the needs of their fly-in fly-out workforce. The likes of YFDF, YCWA and YANG did not exist on the WAC charts of ten years ago but now boast sealed runways of around 2,000 feet, bowser AVTUR and full ERSA representation. Owned by individual iron ore production companies, they are testament to the significance of aviation in this remote part of the country, with passengers boarding their jets in Perth and flying direct to site. Helicopters do not play such a significant role here where the exploration has been done, building completed and life is all about production. Here, the helicopter turns into an observation and planning tool. Regularly, turbine machines are involved in photographic record and survey planning for the future developments. With world-wide demand so strong for manufacturing raw materials, the plans for new and expanded mining interests in the area keep a few aircraft busy high in the skies above, plotting the future.

There is one other machine though which is proving the forerunner to yet another aspect of rotary wing flight in the deep north-west. For the first time outside of the capital city in WA a Bell 206 Longranger sits patiently on stand-by as a dedicated medical machine for one of the large companies. On 24 call-out, it is the stop-gap aircraft whilst the contracted twin-engine BO105 arrives in country. Such a significant aviation development is testament to long term commitment of these companies in the region and a great boost for the helicopter operator who has put in the long yards here.

No new airports are going to help the transport needs of the offshore oil and gas industry though. And where the red ore of the Hamersley Range tapers off to meet the deep blue of the Indian Ocean, Karratha has blossomed into the helicopter capital of Australia. Karratha is the central hub to the very busy and prosperous regions of Exmouth, Barrow Island, Dampier and Port Hedland. Each of them have significant industry built around the natural resources export market. And with that, goes considerable rotary wing activity.

The port towns of Dampier, Point Sampson and Port Hedland are always busy with massive export shipping movements of the various production companies. Trains which can stretch to over 4km in length wind their way slowly down from the likes of Newman and Tom Price some 500km away, to dislodge their ore onto stockpiles for loading into ships. Those ships rely on local harbour masters to guide them safely to and from their local berthing. These ‘Marine Pilots’ in turn, rely on local contracted helicopters 24 hours a day to land them on, and lift them off their various ships as they come and go. An EC120 and EC145s complete the task for two separate companies.

The majority of the work in this area though is crew transfer to and from the oil and gas rigs offshore. With no other viable transport option over the vast stretches of ocean, the helicopter has cemented its place in this industry for the very foreseeable future. RPT jets roll in and out of Karratha daily now with regular monotony as a huge volume of workers transfer in and out of their crew changes. An interesting mix of new and older S76 models, the occasional Bk117, Eurocopter Tigers and 225s as well as AW139s all share the circuit pattern soon after the fixed-wings touch down. The airspace is awash at certain times of the day as the well-flown tracks get hammered once again, ensuring employment security for the offshore pilot.

The north-west of Australia is a long, long distance from all of our capital cities where most of us reside. It is absolute living proof though that helicopters prosper in remote locations. Whether you are an aspiring helicopter pilot, climbing the career ladder or just wondering where that secure pilot job is hiding, perhaps you need to ask yourself if the colour red might just suit you.