Fort William

[Ginja-ninja]

Hi all

I’ve been reading through old posts and from what a lot of people are saying The course at Fort William is not very good and is getting bad publicity, why is this?
I have done the ROV course their and found it to be a good course, I don’t see why your all slagging it off,have you attended the course??? Proberbly not,you’ve proberbly never even been to Fort William.
I passed the course and found work straight away and I don’t have a electrical, hydraulic or mechanical background, so all this you won’t get a job is bull, everyone who was on my course were in the same situation as me and guess what their all working too, all for big companies like Fugro, Canyon, Sonsub etc.
I have met loads of people who trained their and said it was a good and are all working in the ROV business, I have also met people who have been in the business a long time and have said that the standard of Pilots comming out of the Underwater centre is very good.
Please stop slagging off the Underwater centre until you have been their and done it.

[low_ir]

Hmm!
Firstly, congrats on getting employment.

Secondly, no electrical, mechanical or electrical background? An old boss of mine once said "you can teach any monkey how to fly an ROV, some take longer than others though! what we need is people who can fix them!!" QUite right too (although I have met pilots who will not be able to fly them as long as they have a hole in their a**e!). There’s no point having a great pilot if all he can do is wander around with his thumb up his backside when things go TU and the client is screaming down your neck!
I have come across a couple of ‘new’ pilots recently who said they were there to fly the ROV, not fix it!! They didn’t last long onboard.

My advice would be to start learning a relevant discipline to go with your newly developed FW skills.

Good Luck

[centurion]

I have also met people who have been in the business a long time and have said that the standard of Pilots comming out of the Underwater centre is very good.

You almost had me believing you till you slipped that chestnut in.

[J Deans]

There are always exceptions, you just happened to get lucky!

I don’t have a electrical, hydraulic or mechanical background, so all this you won’t get a job is bull, everyone who was on my course were in the same situation as me and guess what their all working too

Oh great, even MORE people now working in ROVs who don’t know which end of a spanner to hold.

And its "they’re" not "their". I see you breezed through your English qualifications at school as well…

[ionicwings]

Hi all

I’ve been reading through old posts and from what a lot of people are saying The course at Fort William is not very good and is getting bad publicity, why is this?
I have done the ROV course their and found it to be a good course, I don’t see why your all slagging it off,have you attended the course??? Proberbly not,you’ve proberbly never even been to Fort William.
I passed the course and found work straight away and I don’t have a electrical, hydraulic or mechanical background, so all this you won’t get a job is bull, everyone who was on my course were in the same situation as me and guess what their all working too, all for big companies like Fugro, Canyon, Sonsub etc.
I have met loads of people who trained their and said it was a good and are all working in the ROV business, I have also met people who have been in the business a long time and have said that the standard of Pilots comming out of the Underwater centre is very good.
Please stop slagging off the Underwater centre until you have been their and done it.

As you might have read in my thread, I am currently doing the course and I find it great so far. I am also not sure why alot of people are prejudice about Training Centers.

Although I should say that in fairness with the others who seems to be prejudice about Training Centers, they might have their own personal reasons or experiences about it which might be worth hearing 😉

[reg]

the standard of Pilots comming out of the Underwater centre is very good

It takes more than 30 – 50 hours to be considered to have any sort of Standard! – That is exactly what is wrong – fresh out of "familiarisation" with the belief you are "trained" – a potentially lethal combination. – question any such "High Standard" type quote.

After your familiarisation where did you get your job? – Fort William!

Most are not slagging the course content, they are slagging the training of the unqualified and the niave. Fort William dsiplays an IMCA Badge, this would lead you to believe that they are following IMCA minimum standard guidelines, however that is not always the case. Unsuitable candidates are told they are "trained" and are coming into a work environment ill equiped to provide the maintenance and safety standards required by the industry.
I heard a tale recently (still unconfirmed and I hope, untrue) of work on "live" conductors on a TMS causing arcing and killing power to the ROV in the water. For me, this is the worry that untrained personnel cause – if true a team of ROV personnel are very lucky not to be one man down (possibly more) – Bloody unbelievable!!

[J Deans]

It was true, it was in a recent safety flash. There was a problem with the TMS, so the TMS was recovered to deck while vehicle remained powered up.

Numpty worked inside JB and got the terminals he was working on mixed up. He thought it was isolated when it wasn’t. Obviously didn’t prove dead!

And I agree, big problem is that these (all, not just FW) give familiarization training, that is why you need to have the technical experience to start with.

I also hear that during the training at FW you get told what a resistor and capacitor is, VERY basic stuff. Their course does not fit the skills of the group who are attending the training. 10 hours of an hour here and there off the end of the jetty in good visibility with no current is no better than spending it on a computer doing a simulator.

[Black Dog]

ROV

[Wade Berglund]

This is an interesting discussion and shows a serious problem with recruiting new personnel into the ROV field. It is only going to get worse guys. This forum is a great sounding board and allot of old hands seem to think that there are not enough trained ROV folks in the field or that the quality/knowledge of the new lads is lacking.

I am a Certified Electronics Technician (C.Tech) that is equivalent to an HND. I have over 20 yrs experience in the Navy working with electronics, fiber optics, and managing computer based maintenance routines for all equipment.
I have noticed that allot of people on this forum feel that taking ROV courses are a waste of time, effort and money. Mostly due to "re-familiarization" by the new employers standards, re-training in other words. Or the lads that take the course have minimal technical background or the course itself is limited in getting an acceptable standard.
So here is the catch-22. How does an experienced tech (with no ROV training) get employed, or a young lad having taken the course in Fort William not piss old hands off by having no electronic experience.

[mind-when-this-was-fields]

And its "they’re" not "their". I see you breezed through your English qualifications at school as well…

I’m afraid its back to school for you too wee man. It’s not ‘they are’, but ‘there’ as in ‘your english lesson is across there’.

[senior]

😛 [There are always exceptions, you just happened to get lucky! ],
I guess that I fit into that category aswell,I sat the course,got an interview with technip and got the job.
🙄 😉 😆 😀

[Black Dog]

ROV

[ionicwings]

I also hear that during the training at FW you get told what a resistor and capacitor is, VERY basic stuff.

Actually, for people who dont have electronics background, there’s another 4 Weeks of Electronics available… so that’s 3 Weeks of Pilot and 4 Weeks of Electronics. If you started ROV Pilot, then you might hear the basic stuff like resistors and capacitors which you might hear it again anyway in the start of Electronics. 😉

[Black Dog]

ROV

[Black Dog]

ROV

[Author]

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