All of our ground personnel are certified to rig loads. We always have a Crew of one Pilot and two flightaid that are full time employed by the Heli Company we work for. So rigging is not the issue.
As for our sling equipment, obviously we take good care of our equipment and meet and sometimes exceed the Mfg. crtieria. By exceeding I mean that for example our remote hooks are overhauled every 2 and not 5 years (Onboard Talon 3K) and they accumulate around 800 hrs. in two years (1000 hrs. Limit).
Our biggest issue so far is the HEC System we want to use. A double hook System does not work for us since we do it very rarely and when needed it has to be ready in a few minutes. We were looking at the ARS Heli briddle which seems a nice and simple design that can be installed in just a few minutes without an engineer having to sign off and release the Heli for Service (we do not have a full time engineer). Looking at the EASA CM No.:CM-CS-005 Issue 01......well lets just say its very frustrating that EASA will only consider simplified Systems (max. 2 persons) if it has been manufactured in accordance with a EN Standard under EU directive89/686/EEC