Originally Posted by
SouthernExplorer
Ground clearance is an issue limiting ops - the actual limitation is not the basic aircraft but the design additions in the choice of under slung toys. Similarly a vehicle that could only deploy 2 MRT members at a time was not the ideal to say the least.
That would be the Sea King then with a decent fuel load intended for maritime ops and redeployed to a 3500' mountain. Happened all the time. The current contract at Schedule 2.1 - Specification, Section 4.1.4.1, completely puts SK capability in the shade.
Originally Posted by
SouthernExplorer
Team member time is an ever impacting issue on the ability to deploy for MR activities. Broadly speaking there are 2 aspects to this. Firstly its the time away from the day job/family. The team members are volunteers doing this of their own volition in their spare time. We have had employers recently saying they can't have employees committed to further MR work. Even out of hours it affects work. Last night our team was alerted at 19:30, deployed around 22:00 and then retrieved at 3AM. Most team members then went to work this morning. Obviously this will have some effect on their work and their employers attitude too. Secondly a team member when deployed really has very limited time. Assuming they are working hard/moving over difficult ground then 6 hours is pushing the limit of what we'd anticipate them doing. In some cases they may be given a break and a chance to go out again, but normally unless their initial deployment is short then it isn't worth attempting to commit them to anything of much duration. So assuming a technical rescue takes some hours it may well be very desirable to retrieve the team by the most expedient method possible. There are also aspect that in remoter areas team members may be driving long distances in their own vehicles before and after deployment.
When coppers say they are the authority for MR, I tell them that the families of team members are the authority for MR.
Originally Posted by
SouthernExplorer
There has also been issues of MRTs being used to save the cost of using paid personnel. There have been recent flood cases when the FRS have called in MRTs (from out of area) rather than retained firefighters as they don't have to pay them. The 4 teams involved in the original issue split from SMR not so much as because they were "honeypot" areas - they split to concentrate on mountain rescue. With limited training hours in a year they decided to concentrate on core skills to make them more effective in the mountains rather than "Swift Water Rescue" - or sewage wading depending on your point of view.
Not entirely a straight forward issue especially since fire service water training is focussed on urban flood stuff and most MR water training is focussed on raging torrents. I have heard of Police being accused of using MR as a cost saver but I haven't experienced that since I operate in an area where even the shinty pitch is mountainous.