Improved Efficiency for Offshore Oil Rig Flight Operations

Cougar Helicopters Lowers Costs

Cougar Helicopters, the major offshore oil-rig flight support organization on Canada’s East Coast, was looking for a way to improve the availability of an alternate airport to use for IFR operations. The existing procedure had relatively high minimums so that a more remote alternate was needed a high percentage of the time. This meant that increased fuel reserves were required, reducing the available load on a given flight. The solution was to use Final Approach to design an optimum procedure. The resulting approach (which will be approved shortly), with minimums that are 200 feet lower than the previous procedure, will mean increased efficiency for Cougar and lower costs for their customers.