Didn't work there? Right....  

There were spare pilots at some bases, not all. THese were generally newer pilots who did not meet the minimum requirements of the oil company I flew for. There was no job description book with a diagram of the platforms in my field. What was this guy going to do, fly out and do my job while I watched tv? Give me a break, that's not reality. In all the time I worked in the GOM (15 years), I never heard of a single offshore-based pilot "calling in sick" during his hitch. We were adults, not children. You got up, put your uniform on, and did your GD job.