I guess this post should go under the heading of that old North Country saying ….
‘There’s nowt so queer as folk…’
With Sussex grounded for over a week that must be seriously affecting their overall availability…. [it took nearly a week to get the spare aircraft from Vertitair] and of course the Explorer remains unavailable… Presumably the manufacturers well documented cash-flow problems might have some bearing on failing to get spares instantly…but in the end that does not matter greatly.
Just two months ago the whole fleet was grounded [for a week or more I am told] for the replacement of the rotor head attachment pins, and a subsequent high profile inspection requirement on many units.
By my reckoning just those 14 days AOG [and of course it grows daily even if the unit itself is finally operational] trashes any comparison with the availability figures coming back from EC135 units. They appear to be returning 97-98% even with the significant trouble they had with the FADAC failures until this summer and an assumed AOG or two. The sole A109 operator failed to rise to TCs 98% challenge a while back so we must guess that Dyfed are not in that league either.
Still, at a time when the manufacturers must be a bit low at the continued failure of those Dutch Explorers to meet their delivery schedule [two in place by December 2003], all is not gloomy.
MDHI can shortly announce the sale of another 900 into the UK police market as soon as the Home Office cash is assured for the Cambridgeshire bid.
Cambridge Police announced the selection of the currently keenly priced Explorer last week [although I guess the bid decision must have been a couple of months ago].
It does not seem to matter that Cambridgeshire is part of an otherwise wholly EC135 equipped East Anglian consortium and that means that pilots will not be easily interoperable… more engineering skills will need to be added to the pool at Aeromega or whoever gets the new contract in April [at what additional cost for each?].
And clearly before choosing the Explorer above all others because it was ‘Cheap as chips’ in the current exchange rate situation they must have investigated thoroughly the availability profile, capability [SPIFR in VMC being available but still not IMC], range and fuel burn issues before coming to their decision. How can you go IFR if you do not have sufficient fuel for the diversions?
That leaves aside how the exchange rate will actually be handling in two or three years when they have to actually pay out for it [and all those difficult to get spares]. Cheap as chips?
Surely? They would look into all that wouldn’t they….?
Please tell me they would ….. PLEASE!