geojac,When you sidetrack youre drilling off a hard cement plug...

geojac,

When you sidetrack youre drilling off a hard cement plug and the bit is going to head in the direction you point it. Once youve verified that youve kicked off and your far enough from the old wellbore you drop the angle back to vertical and stay vertical to final total depth. Its a simple enough process. The only complicating issues are usually a kick off plug that is either not long enough or not hard enough. Thats easily fixed by just pumping another kick off plug. Sidetracks commonly require a couple of tries before you get kicked off.

Im hoping that if they havent fished the stuck string theyll be starting sidetrack operations by now.

Drill pipe and drill collars should undergo regular inspection including a GR survey. The most common failure points on drillpipe are the tool joints at each end...threads giving way are probably most common root cause of washouts.