About Us
Flying A Services LLC (FAS) is a training establishment based in Marina Del Rey close to Los Angeles International Airport providing management services, well control training and other relevant training via a number of delivery methods, including instructor-led in class, web-based and on-site coaching. Its training curriculum is planned to fall in line with future legislative requirements of the United States
Our Mission
To offer well-control assurance, training and accreditation for maximizing the safety of operations and attaining uncompromised industry standards.
Founder
Tom Macrae founded Flying A Services LLC in May 2019 to provide a family-friendly training services center for hard-working oilmen worldwide who would rather take their friends and family on their course with them than spend another week away from them.
Tom has over 35 years in Drilling, his expertise is in drilling, well control, risk management, training, coaching, and auditing. As an engineering graduate, he started his oilfield career in the North Sea as Trainee Driller back in 1981 working with various drilling contractors before joining BP in 2000 as a Senior Company Man. After 5 years as a staff rep, he started my own consultancy services before founding Flying-A Well Control LLC in Texas in 2014, Flying A Drilling Services LLC (UK) in 2017 and now Flying A Services LLC. His focus is providing accredited well control training as well as continuing to offer other training, well control assurance and well integrity, auditing, well management and supervisory services. In his career, he has worked Platforms, Jack-ups, Semis, Drillships, and Land drilled wildcat, exploration, appraisal, development, HPHT, ERD and H2S wells and experienced extreme conditions in the Arctic, West of Shetland, Malaysia, West Africa, Gulf of Mexico, India and the Caribbean. He is self-motivated, up for any challenge, a very good communicator, excellent planner and now the time is right to pass on his experiences to others who will benefit from it.
The Devils’s Cigarette Lighter
The Devil’s Cigarette Lighter was a natural gas well fire at Gassi Touil in the Sahara Desert of Algeria. Ignited when a pipe ruptured on November 6, 1961, the Phillips Petroleum Company-owned well produced more than 6,000 cubic feet (170 m3) of natural gas per second, whose flame rose between 450 feet (140 m) and 800 feet (240 m). The flame was seen from orbit by John Glenn during the flight of Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962. The blowout and fire were estimated to have consumed enough gas to supply Paris for three months, burning 550,000,000 cubic feet (16,000,000 m3) per day.
After burning almost six months, the fire was extinguished by well fire expert Red Adair, who used explosives to deprive the flame of oxygen. The exploit made Adair a celebrity. Adair worked the fire with Asger “Boots” Hansen and Ed “Coots” Matthews, who later formed the Boots & Coots well control company.[5][6] Preparations took five months while Adair’s team cleared wreckage from near the wellhead with shielded bulldozers, dug wells, and excavated three reservoirs for water supplies. On April 28, 1962, Adair used a modified bulldozer with a 66-foot (20 m) arm to move a metal drum containing a 550-pound (250 kg) nitroglycerin charge to the well. Adair, Matthews, Hansen and Charlie Tolar rode the rig, protected by a metal heat shield and water sprays, with Adair driving and the others on a shielded platform while medical teams and evacuation helicopters stood by. After positioning the explosives, the team ran to a trench about 150 feet (46 m) from the well. The explosion extinguished the fire by displacing oxygen from the area of the ruptured well. Water from the reservoirs was used to flood the area for two days to cool the well.Drilling mud was pumped into the hole to control the flow of gas and the well was capped after four days of work.
