Originally Posted by
oldgrubber
H "n" H
That all changed when the mk7 baggers came in and I found myself on an 849 unit, my initial, "this is going to be easy" thoughts were soon dispelled as the capability of the aircraft became known. Lets just say 10 days continuous flying from a pool of 3 aircraft, plus milk/mail collecting, viptax and SAR (the 771 cab was bust) off Somalia was an eye opener.
Interesting that Mk7 actually did SAR. It was a tertiary role, and there was a school of thought that it would never happen, so don't bother - the theory being it would save money in the design. But I left it in, mainly because that part of the programme was a technical and contractual pre-requisite, and any delay would cost us half a million a month in penalties. Another reason was as discussed - uncertainty over Merlin capability. All that was ever said was that 5 Merlins would do the job of 8 SKs. (Hence, around 50 bought). But any assumption about Merlin having better technology, especially in avionics, went out the window when the ISD was missed by about 5-6 years. For example, its comms was older than SK6, which in turn was much older than ASaC and Mk4. I know that in 2001 it was still at a 1984 build standard.
The problem with continuous flying you mention would, in part, be down to the actual requirement being 16 cabs, but capped at 13. And no reserve were allowed. In fact, the RN's endorsement was 10. The extra 3 was purely a MoD(PE) initiative, which I got well and truly clobbered for by one particular beancounter. Luckily an Admiral stepped in and told him to....(obscene Naval term).