Winchop,
“Airmanship can't be learnt on a quick winchmen course, it takes time in the air and working in a multi crew environment to achieve, which they already have.”
Are you suggesting that an air ambulance paramedic has all the airmanship he requires for SAR because he’s flown in a helicopter? What experience has he got of getting people out of the water, of getting himself and a casualty off the back off a boat safely in rough conditions, of providing a FLIR letdown at night to the back of a vessel or to a rig in fog, of plotting a search pattern, of participating in a search and providing comms with the Coastguard, RCC and the like? The list could go on. Yes they can learn the basics on a quick winchman course but they can hardly be regarded as experienced.
What you and others need to understand is that the Jigsaw project is going ahead on the results of a group of very experienced SAR operators. The times and performance which justifies the whole existence of Jigsaw was achieved by long term SAR crews with years of experience. Any endorsement for Jigsaw by HSE and the workforce and others will be based on this. Will the Bond crews meet the same performance figures and prove that they can with their current recruitment policy? The answer is I don’t know but if they aren’t employing some current SAR Commanders and adopt the same policy with crewmen then I seriously doubt it. To many non SAR crew SAR is regarded as something anyone can do quite easily, I wonder whether those calling the shots at Bond believe the same?
“I'm saying Bond will not get away with hiring those who haven't done the job before.”
Really..??? Well we'll watch and see…..