Originally Posted by
hueyracer
Like. I said... Apples and oranges....
Yes, the police will be less efficient compared to a commercial operator....
But the police helicopter will always be there and available-at no extra "standby fee"...
So it's not really about the money....
Training-wise I must say I now disagree with either police or military in Germany saying they are "very well trained" - this is something I kept hearing from everyone within, and only once I started flying on the commercial side I figured that what we considered "experienced" flying was just a piece of cake for any commercial pilot..
(put aside the specialized flying with nvgs, or firing rockets and stuff...)..
It was not my intention to hijack this thread to bitch and moan about commercial vs governmental pilots....
Well, you can't really judge very well trained - if you don't have a closer insight.
The joint training academy really brings out very good pilots - if you put proper candidates in at first.
Much more training done as would be required for the normal commercial license.
I did some freelancing and have also an insight, what is going on in the civi world.
But that should be another thread, this is about introducing fire fighting into an organisation, which hasn't done it before.
And as far, as I can say, the ones involved did quite a lot of research and met with experienced pilots from the civi world as well as the police world (flying bambis for decades)
The approach at the moment may seem strange for the standard civi operator - but worked out for the first two fires.
We will see, if during further training and fire fighting procedures will be modified.