VitaminG - if I misheard the bloke from the IPT and it was 12.5 airframes per day that still only equates to 50% serviceability from a fleet of 25 Mk3 and 3As - still seems pretty crappy to me.
Freeride - we do not do unnecessary GH - 95% of our training is in role maintaining skills using radar/FCS/FLIR, NVG, PLB homings, cliff, wet and deck winching, mountain flying, navigation, search management and IF (procedural and non-procedural). This is so that when we go out on a job, we provide the best service possible in any conditions. Can you say that you train as hard? When was the last time you flew a night mountains sortie for training?
Our pilots have an annual check with the Trg team for their operational category, an IRT once a year for their IR and a standards check by the trappers once every 2 years - that doesn't sound too much more than your base and line check.
Our dilution level is higher at the front line than we would like but when you see the capabilities of even our inexperienced pilots you cannot fail to be impressed - part of this capability is achieved through lots of training.