TechnicalPassport.com is a website that is owned and run by Tradewinds Engineering Ltd. The site has been put together to help members of the offshore industry to get direct access to our HVAC courses and technical support as and when they need it. As the site develops, we will continue to include a full range of courses that are relevant to offshore personnel.
Tradewinds Engineering have extensive experience and expertise with refrigeration, air conditioning and ventilation systems within the Marine and Offshore industry. From the chillers in the living quarters, to hazardous area ventilation systems, our skilled engineers are ready to support you 365 days per year in any location around the world.
Our project history has seen us working directly with major oil & gas operators both in the North Sea (UK) and in international locations. We have successfully completed HVAC surveys and condition reports, new installations, commissioning, refrigerant R22 retrofits, heat load analysis and design reviews for entire platforms as well as ductwork and air flow calculations.
With each contract, we aim to deliver complete peace of mind. High quality and safety standards are at the forefront of everything we do and this can be seen across our three key services:
- Projects and Equipment Upgrades
- HVACR Service & Maintenance
- HVAC & Refrigeration Training Courses
Stuart Ginbey – Managing Director of Tradewinds Engineering
Hi, I’m Stuart Ginbey the Managing Director of Tradewinds Engineering and I’m here to help you learn about offshore HVAC systems. Firstly, thank-you for visiting www.technicalpassport.com.
I encourage you to have a look around the site with the view of understanding what courses we offer and how we can help you to move from where your knowledge is right now to fully understanding how refrigeration and air conditioning systems work so that you can troubleshoot faults immediately.
We have spent a lot of time and money investing in this site because we believe that e-learning is a fantastic way to help your journey to becoming a better HVAC technician. It doesn’t matter how much you already know about offshore refrigeration systems. I’m sure that whatever level of experience you might have, you are going to get a lot out of this course.
In case you’re wondering who I am, I’ve been in the HVAC industry for over 25 years and the trade has literally taken me all over the world. After finishing an apprenticeship in Perth, Australia, I soon set to travelling the world. I gained a qualification in Marine Engineering and took my first job as the engineer on a fishing vessel off the coast of Queensland and the Northern Territory. And that was it. I was hooked on the marine industry. Having sent my cv to a company on Monday, by Friday I was boarding a plane to Singapore to start my first job in the oil & gas industry. This was an 8 week trip to fully commission the HVAC systems on the topside of an FPSO. I then did a few trips offshore around Western Australia and even ended up in Timor of all places.
After that I did 3 years in Sakhalin Island, Russia which was an amazing experience. Extreme cold and very remote but I loved the adventure. Since then, I’ve been based in the UK and worked extensively throughout the North Sea and parts of Europe. I then became an air conditioning inspector and later qualified as a trainer and assessor. I’ve been teaching marine refrigeration, F-Gas, brazing, basic refrigeration and even offshore HVAC design courses for the last few years but I’ve particularly made them specific to the oil & gas industry. I’ve taught courses in the UK, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Singapore, Australia and even Saudi Arabia and now see this as an opportunity to take this training even further.
Before gaining these qualifications I set up the Tradewinds Engineering Ltd. We are predominantly an offshore service & consultancy company, however we are also an approved City & Guilds training centre. So what we have done is develop our own ‘Marine Refrigeration Course’ and have included the C&G2079 F-Gas qualification into it. This is the legal qualification that all personnel must have to be able to work with refrigerants. But we found that with so much information to cover in just 5 days, it would be better if our students could do some theory based training before attending the F-Gas course. This is why we developed the elearning course called ‘Fundamentals of Marine & Offshore Refrigeration’.
As you can probably tell, I’m quite passionate about all things HVAC. In fact, I remember when I was about 22years old and I was wondering what am I going to do with my life. What do I love doing? And the answer was simple:
WORK – I love all things HVAC and the principles of moving heat energy
MARINE & OFFSHORE INDUSTRY – ships, vessels, rigs, platforms, FPSO’s
TRAVEL – I just love to travel
And this is where it all came together. This is why I love being an offshore HVAC engineer. I’ve managed to bring all three aspects together and build a company in the process. I get to travel the world, stay in nice hotels (and some bad ones) and work on some major engineering projects. In fact what I really love about working offshore is that its ‘High Risk’ and I have to be thorough in everything that I do. And this makes me a better engineer. If I’m safe and thorough in every job that I do, then the clients are happy because the HVAC equipment is reliable and I’m proud that I’ve done a good job.
What more could I ask for?
Anyway, enough about me, let’s get you booked onto a course and start discovering the laws of thermodynamics, heat transfer and the vapour compression cycle.
So now it’s time for both of us to make a commitment. I need you to commit to giving are courses your full attention. You have an opportunity here to make your job a lot easier and really take your knowledge to the next level. My commitment is that I will be with you every step of the way. There is going to be a lot of new information in here and our HVAC courses are not just a 5 minute short course. So read the study guides, watch the videos and do the e-lessons. There’s a few short quizzes to test your knowledge too. If at any stage you are not sure about something and have a few questions then step over to the forum and ask them in there. I will be checking in every day and there are other great resources available to help you.
So lets get started.