UK NPAS discussion: thread Mk 2
Purveyor of Egg Liqueur to Lucifer
NPASGOD - No Persons Are Sure, 'Grandeur Or Dillusion'
NPASGOD - 'Pond Gas'
How nice that despite having a Linkedin page stating he is Director of Ground Operations, one now decides to be Ground Operations Director!
NPASGOD - 'Pond Gas'
How nice that despite having a Linkedin page stating he is Director of Ground Operations, one now decides to be Ground Operations Director!
Purveyor of Egg Liqueur to Lucifer
Rochester Airport Regeneration - Who is supporting the scheme?
A commitment! Just how formal is this commitment that it isn't mentioned in any of the plans? How much will be invested in the regeneration in order to fulfil any of these commitments? Any other little 'black holes' around the country?
“The National Police Air Service utilises the facility at Rochester Airport as a forward operating base. There is a commitment to continue this agreement for the foreseeable future to ensure an appropriate service is delivered to Kent and the surrounding area. The cooperation received from the airport management has enhanced the relationship in support of our continued use of Rochester Airport.” Richard Watson, Ground Operations Director, National Police
I guess that there is a CONTRACT in place that will expire later rather than sooner!
No big deal surely?
Thats why its taking so long to introduce NPAS..... the expiry of existing contracts.
No big deal surely?
Thats why its taking so long to introduce NPAS..... the expiry of existing contracts.
You couldn't make it up...... No 1,000,001
It looks like Alex Marshall is taking on a mantle of Grim Reaper.
From dismantling the existing UK air support he is off to a new job in charge of the Police College at Bramshill – but that is going to be a 'last man switch off the lights' role as well.
Police Oracle carried a story this morning that states the Government is to sell the Police Staff College at Bramshill.
Home Secretary Theresa May has announced plans to sell the site because it would cost too much to keep [sounds familiar]. The Home Office expects to conclude a sale in the 2013-14 financial year.
From dismantling the existing UK air support he is off to a new job in charge of the Police College at Bramshill – but that is going to be a 'last man switch off the lights' role as well.
Police Oracle carried a story this morning that states the Government is to sell the Police Staff College at Bramshill.
Home Secretary Theresa May has announced plans to sell the site because it would cost too much to keep [sounds familiar]. The Home Office expects to conclude a sale in the 2013-14 financial year.
A potentially interesting set of figures have been released to the East Anglia Daily Times giving the numbers for flight operations in Suffolk prior to NPAS.
Suffolk: Police spend £1m a year on helicopter but spend is below budget - News - East Anglian Daily Times
The article includes a police statement that provides the crucial reasoning behind NPAS “The fixed costs of keeping a helicopter are a significant proportion of the annual costs, therefore the more use it gets, the less each flying hour costs.” but I suspect that string of words may have been put together by someone having a major stake in NPAS!
Suffolk: Police spend £1m a year on helicopter but spend is below budget - News - East Anglian Daily Times
The article includes a police statement that provides the crucial reasoning behind NPAS “The fixed costs of keeping a helicopter are a significant proportion of the annual costs, therefore the more use it gets, the less each flying hour costs.” but I suspect that string of words may have been put together by someone having a major stake in NPAS!
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PA, in itself it is a perfectly correct statement. But it is considerably less than half the story.
A number of helicopters used to fly as much as they reasonably could.
Extra hours spent transitting around the UK may have an overall lower hourly cost, but the NPAS system means each helicopter will have to fly further to get to a task.
If experience so far is anything to go by, there will also be a lot of flying around to try and get fuel, especially at night.
Finally, a whole tranche of jobs are time critical, and NPAS aircraft will arrive later, arguably too late.
On average, of course.
The sadness is that those in charge either don't know enough to know about these things, or (perhaps even worse) they do know but have chosen to join the dark side.
If you want meaningful data then may I suggest 2 candidates for a comparative analysis:
Cost per task attended (or perhaps deployed for)
The probability of a successful outcome per task requested
A number of helicopters used to fly as much as they reasonably could.
Extra hours spent transitting around the UK may have an overall lower hourly cost, but the NPAS system means each helicopter will have to fly further to get to a task.
If experience so far is anything to go by, there will also be a lot of flying around to try and get fuel, especially at night.
Finally, a whole tranche of jobs are time critical, and NPAS aircraft will arrive later, arguably too late.
On average, of course.
The sadness is that those in charge either don't know enough to know about these things, or (perhaps even worse) they do know but have chosen to join the dark side.
If you want meaningful data then may I suggest 2 candidates for a comparative analysis:
Cost per task attended (or perhaps deployed for)
The probability of a successful outcome per task requested
Last edited by Helinut; 28th Dec 2012 at 16:47.
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Helinut
Spot on!
It's ALL about the savings. It will be interesting to see how the next round of cuts effect the service, I know from experience that the boys and girls in NPAS are working so hard to make this work, but I fear the lack of funding will eventually roll up more units towards the '9 aircraft option'.
All it will take is for the stats to show, lack of results, longer transits (including returning to base for fuel before going to the next task which also effects response times), falling requests for air support from small counties looking to save cash, and officers on the ground feeling it's not worth calling as it takes too long.
nice pic of the EAAA aircraft with the caption 'police helicopter' in the Suffolk news article posted by PAN.
Spot on!
It's ALL about the savings. It will be interesting to see how the next round of cuts effect the service, I know from experience that the boys and girls in NPAS are working so hard to make this work, but I fear the lack of funding will eventually roll up more units towards the '9 aircraft option'.
All it will take is for the stats to show, lack of results, longer transits (including returning to base for fuel before going to the next task which also effects response times), falling requests for air support from small counties looking to save cash, and officers on the ground feeling it's not worth calling as it takes too long.
nice pic of the EAAA aircraft with the caption 'police helicopter' in the Suffolk news article posted by PAN.
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Art you are of course right. When the Met join the SE region the main urban area is covered and I think that the other 4 bases, covering rural areas, may well close or be drastically reduced. Onward the slow march of death to Air Support as we know it. And yes I am sure that when the statistics are looked at they will tell a story, depending how they are read, which I am sure will be 180 degrees from how they were read when the SE region had its trial prior to and in support of NPAS. IMHO
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FFF,
Didn't that trial report conclude that if 3 aircraft at 3 bases cost $$$, then 2 aircraft at 2 bases could do the same area for $$.....?
Guess that will be shown to be true or not in the nearer future, but i see the savings of 15m have already been revised to 12-15m. And before you ask, my redundancy payment wasn't the reason for this
Didn't that trial report conclude that if 3 aircraft at 3 bases cost $$$, then 2 aircraft at 2 bases could do the same area for $$.....?
Guess that will be shown to be true or not in the nearer future, but i see the savings of 15m have already been revised to 12-15m. And before you ask, my redundancy payment wasn't the reason for this
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OK we're not a crime hotspot
Police helicopter spends less time in the area = less of a deterrent
= potential likelihood of a rise n crime
But come on, there's been plenty of slagging off NPAS on here,
but now that it IS up and running,
where are the Good News stories from those that have joined / are joinng ?
I've heard there are some !
SEASU Helicopter
HNY
Morris 1: are you in a position to declare on this thread, what the morale is like amongst TFO's? Is there a deadline beyond which they start losing money?
I don't think it is NPAS remit to assist in this regard, do you? Surely it is with the fed?
I don't think it is NPAS remit to assist in this regard, do you? Surely it is with the fed?
Police officers of all ranks are leaving in large numbers on the assumption that they will be losing several thousand pounds from their wages under the new pay regime.
With each of the existing units being cut to the bone anyway [1 sergeant and 8 has been mentioned as a unit standard] you would expect to get significant numbers of expensively trained Observer's around to fill any gaps.
This is patently not happening and the recent West Yorkshire adverts for a sergeant at Redhill and constables all across the country seems to underline a group of people just getting out wholesale.
If there were savings to be made it seems that they will be swallowed by the training bill in the short term. There will always be some who have never known the higher pay rate that will volunteer ...... or will they?
With each of the existing units being cut to the bone anyway [1 sergeant and 8 has been mentioned as a unit standard] you would expect to get significant numbers of expensively trained Observer's around to fill any gaps.
This is patently not happening and the recent West Yorkshire adverts for a sergeant at Redhill and constables all across the country seems to underline a group of people just getting out wholesale.
If there were savings to be made it seems that they will be swallowed by the training bill in the short term. There will always be some who have never known the higher pay rate that will volunteer ...... or will they?
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I can't comment on morale across the board. All I will say is that NPAS appear to be relying on Officers love of the job to keep them, regardless of how badly things are being run. No doubt there are younger, less experienced Officers willing to remain below the final pay threshold in order to work as TFO's, once all us crusty old farts have walked.
I'm afraid job satisfaction doesn't pay the bills.