Baggage Allowances

[Borolad]

Hi All,

Just wanted to ‘pick the brains’ of all you old sweats out there. I need some advice on luggage limits on choppers etc, when sent away with the RAF I just turned up with my Samsonite case and huge RAF holdall, slung them in the back of a Hercules, applied ear defenders and off to sleep (yeah right) 😉 . Obviously this practice will have to change in my new career. Any advice on what weight/sizes are practicable for certain situations i.e. rig, meeting vessel in port, chopper trip involved etc? Read somewhere that it is a good idea to have an empty bag folded in your main bag so you can split your gear if needed, all tips greatly appreciated.

I am going to miss my bright mango yellow plastic case, bloody minging colour but sticks out a mile amongst a sea of blue holdalls on the conveyor belt at Brize Norton! 😀

Thanks in advance,

Borolad.

[Crickitt]

Here in Canada, for flights to the rigs off east coast, there is a 3 bag, 12kg / bag limit. I’d try to keep it to 2 bags if possible as carrying 3 with an immersion suit on is a pain in the arse.

[TheBaron]

A safe rule-of-thumb would be to take 2 soft shelled bags packed to a maximum of 12-14kg each(you can always lose a couple of kilo’s, push come to shove). This applies to most situations as even though you may embark from port, you may be transferred to a rig/platform for a helicopter ride home! It happens. Note how I said ‘soft shelled’ bags. Some heliports will refuse to load hard shelled cases/bags. Another consideration is that some vessels have very narrow lockers in the cabins….and I mean NARROW.
Once you have settled into a set pattern of work you can then modify your luggage to suit. I have taken the full size hard shelled Samsonite on vessels where I know I can get away with it.

[Andy Shiers]

That bloody case was more like a red capsuled lifeboat Baz 😆

[temp]

Borolad

Samsonite suitcase AND a holdall! we only used to be allowed 2 standard issue holdalls, things must have changed, must look a right bunch of pussies arriving in a war zone with your gucci suitcases.

Soft-shelled holdalls are the norm for offshore, all depends on how long you’re going away for, what the facilities are like, whether travelling by chopper etc.

As The Baron said, you’ll soon suss out what you need and what you can leave behind next time. I use one humungous 90 ltr holdall (Lostboy note!), that can be compressed down, and have smaller holdall inside for separating loads for chopper etc. Usually comes in under 20kg total even with all the ppe etc and a few books. Depends what your concept of travelling light is, how much creature comforts you like to take away.

Oh, and always keep your wallet, passport, house keys etc on your person, so if your bag disappears you can get home and into the house. Have seen guys bags taken off chopper at last minute whilst they are strapped in, get to other end, no money keys etc – bummer.

have a good first trip
temp

[temp]

Also photocopies of all your survival and medical certs, and a note of issue and expiry dates, passport and seamans book numbers & dates etc, next of kin contact details, company/agency contact details etc. Usually have to fill in forms with all this when first arrive on board ship/rig, even though all these details have usually been sent out already, and maybe filled out forms at heliport already too. I carry a sheet of paper with all this crap summarized, saves digging out all the various bits of paperwork.

temp

[J Deans]

Remembering that a lot of airlines now limit you to one bag in the hold and charge you a fortune if you take more than that. Its not all drive to heliport and fly out by helicopter to a rig.

[Borolad]

Thanks for all the info lads, off to the shops for another holdall 😆

Borolad.

[James McLauchlan]

I tend to travel with Samsonite medium sized case (So called ‘Worldproof’. 350 series). It, and it’s predecessors, have always been accepted on choppers. Boats of course are not an issue.
I also carry either a Laptop type backpack or a laptop case with all my gadgets and paperwork in.
Passports, cards, cash always travels with me no matter if I’m in a chopper or on a plane.

A few trips back a Polish AB (ships crew) thought in clever to pack everything into his case in Poland and walk onto the plane with only a boarding pass, a passport and a bit of cash. At the other end (Egypt)… nothing arrived. Two weeks later a Poly bin bag arrived on-board from the agent with a few item in.. he lost a lot of personal possessions.

[Ray Shields]

Thanks for all the info lads, off to the shops for another holdall 😆

Borolad.

Ah, wait til you get the snazzy new canvas offshore bags Fugro are having made.

Guess what colour they will be tho… 😆 😆

[Andy Shiers]

Pink 😆

[TheProphet]

They will probably be handbag size as well, so they can fight with each other in the yard over the pay scale discrepencies. 😆

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the info lads, off to the shops for another holdall 😆

Borolad.

Ah, wait til you get the snazzy new canvas offshore bags Fugro are having made.

Guess what colour they will be tho… 😆 😆

Baby shit brown?????

[Ray Shields]

Thanks for all the info lads, off to the shops for another holdall 😆

Borolad.

Ah, wait til you get the snazzy new canvas offshore bags Fugro are having made.

Guess what colour they will be tho… 😆 😆

Baby shit brown?????

Gosh – how DID you guess! 😀 😀 😀

[Donnie Cameron]

You may also want to remember that Norway will not allow any bag over 10kgs to be loaded on their choppers. You can have more than one but no single bag must be over this weight limit.

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