Memoirs of a GDC intern

I know am supposed to take you through my day three but before that…..today I just did my CAT 1 on Computer Controlled Manufacturing (CCM). I had a rather smooth time explaining the use of pneumatic valves in speed control especially thanks to the knowledge passed to me by Mr. Nyaga, one of the best technicians at GDC Rig 2 who gave me a lot of hands-on knowledge on Rig Mechanical systems from hydraulic, pneumatic and Structural Mechanics…..very beneficial information that I bet I would not have found anywhere. And how is speed control applied on pneumatic systems on the Rig?

The pneumatic system does the braking of the drawworks while doing POOH and RIH operations both automatically using the two protective limit and safety devices, and by the driller applying brakes. The whole system is pneumatically activated and I remember interpreting the circuits at the Maintenance Cabin, Wow!

Ok, this is not the day for this, On day three was arrival day at the field, Menengai. Here comes the good part…..our Van. I do appreciate on behalf of my fellow interns, the transport that the company gave us. This was the best part of this hospitality at GDC, a company van with a designated driver just for the attachees was just awesome. We really appreciate Godana, our driver from day 1, for being very kind accepting the challenge despite the fact that he had other errands to run, like being the Head of Camp at Menengai. So, to cut it short, he picked us up at 7am from Generation house parking to Menengai, more specifically dropped us at Rig 2 on his way to the camp.

On this day, we were all new and knew nothing about drilling Rigs and so we asked many questions as we drove past Kabarak, into Menengai, Barrier and even had more questions when we saw the “booster-like” things for the first time. We went past Rig 1 and could see Rig 3, Rig 4 before we alighted at Rig 2 and were handed over to Mr. Too, the Rig 2 Maintenance Engineer. Of course I had done a bit of research and watched as many videos as possible about drilling rigs and so I was the one helping answer some questions that I could while Mr. Nyaga helped us understand more.

So, on being welcome here, we just got to work. Rig 2 was on Rig down, i.e being dismantled in readiness to be transported to another site that was being prepared. Wow, Mr. Nyaga told us that we were the luckiest attachees because we would gain maximum experience as we would see every part of the Rig and this didn't make sense till later….we really learnt a lot.

So Mr. Too gave us our first task, stating clearly off course that at the Rig we would learn more by experience and doing a lot rather than just watching people do things so we were greatly encouraged. Our task for most of that day was transferring items from a KOOMEY to a store cabin for better storage and arrangement. Some of the items we transferred included Generator and Compressor filters for oil and fuel,  Valves and transducers mostly Rexroth Control valves…yeah German Technology running Chinese Rigs; Motors etc.

I remember transferring this SKF induction heater from the KOOMEY to the store. You may be wondering just what this is…..it’s used to insert bearings for example where the bearing is supposed to have a tight fit so its slightly smaller, so you use this heater to expand it a bit before you do the fitting.

We all did some good teamwork here and all parts were well arranged in the store. Unfortunately, it was too late for this day and as we slowly took our 4 o’clock tea which I still miss till today, we got to know even more people at the rig as we waited for Godana to pick us.

Mr. Nyaga promised to do a proper orientation for us on the next day and as we left for Nakuru town, we looked forward to the next day with a lot of enthusiasm.