Firstly we all seem to acknowledge that the SAR crews Mil or Civ do a fine job for those in need in this Country. The facts are the ‘Cost’ to the taxpayer are less with the Civilian option. Go on spit into wind
As for the doing the business, well…. the civilian aircraft are in a better state of repair and maintenance than those of the Military, this looks good on paper and in the air too, with less incident reports to write.
For No:1 crustacean: Civvies do all that the Mil boys do training wise (except goggles…heck they could do that too if the MCA said they wanted it, enough ex NVG instructors on every base already) each pilot/crewman averages the minimum 15 hours per month that the Navy SAR crews use to have for training. Perhaps it’s higher in both mil camps now with the NVG requirements. Hey all those real SAR flight hours are a bonus every year. For the Civvie with only about an average 8/9 shifts per month, nearly 2 hours a duty period. There is no need for ‘standby’ crews, that is what a serviceable aircraft state, a UK SAR overlap system and effective tasking is for. This leaves plenty of time to read pprune, family life and spending what’s left of the £££ salary after most of it has been taken away in tax to pay for expensive MOD bills. Before you whinge about the pay packet, remember that the numbers required to run a base effectively in the civil world is markedly less than it’s military counterpart, besides most civvies did a mil SAR job and then 10-15 years on top. The civil aircraft have no problem doing absolutely everything IMC thanks to Mr Louis Newmark as well. For those bases that have hills in their patch well I’m sure the requirement to ‘low mountain’ fly will be met.
Fancy someone saying that without the SAR squadron gods that all those other Navy Pilots who are expected to fly at night to and from ships and hover for hours over the sea can’t cover the small hole left by removing a second line role like SAR. That’s like saying the RAF SH crews couldn't do a mil SAR mission if asked, unless they had driven a yellow one for years and years…Shame on you.
Most importantly since I don’t see too much Civvie bashing from the RN crews I shall keep their CV’s in my ‘In Tray’.