Yeah, living amongst an Arab culture is not easy. Of course I only shopped and travelled a bit, I have never had to work for them as you guys did.
As for the SAMS, yeah up to 12,000 feet is safe for the smaller ones that is true but don''t forget for most helo drivers that is not a feasible flight profile and those smaller ones will get you in your climb or descent.
Things are safer now over the Gulf, but the bottom line is that if you know anyone still flying to rigs in the Persian Gulf, I would highly recommend that they make themselves extremely visible and follow regular flight patterns/corridors. I can tell you for a fact that whenever you guys transit through the Gulf out there, weapons systems on warships and from shore in Iran keep your machine locked on and ready to fire constantly. The only reason you don''t get taken down is your behaviour such as following a straight direct route to a rig and back to shore.
Anytime a warship is "on station", their air defence system will lock you up, their missiles stay armed and ready to fire. We patrolled up to 12 miles off the coast of Iran and our system on the ship would always acknowledge that our helo was being tracked by the Iranian air defence system.
Our transponders have four modes to ensure we sqawk the proper codes and do not get shot down. You lads are out there just doing your jobs with a simple mode three/C, that is why our crews were horrified that the war started without proper notams. We were deadly scared one of the civilian helos would get blown out of the sky "accidentally".
All I''m saying is fly safe, do not ever approach a warship, give them at least 5 nm if that is feasible and otherwise stay on your routes to and from your oil fields. My hat is off to you lads for what you do. I''d go crazy flying up at 4, 5 or 6,000 feet all the time. I hate it when I have to climb higher than 500 feet, helicopters just don''t belong up there but I digress.
PS: If you ever in doubt out there and scared of the warships you see and want to know what is going on, all coalition aircraft and ships monitor guard 121.5/243.0 at all times. The big angel in the sky (707 with a huge dish on top) knows where everyone is at all times, they will gladly assist and deconflict you and your position if you call for help. Just don''t be surprised if you get an escort though.
