remote hook,
I have to agree with the "A" model comments you make, the idea that one should never buy an A model is guaranteed to assure that the Wright Flyer is the only airplane ever built (how can you make a new aircraft if nobody buys it? How can you make a B model if the A model never sells!)
Your point is well taken, progress naturally brings bugs, but the net gain makes the bugs tolerable.
One point:
The EH-101 did NOT make the longest distance helicopter escue, it only CLAIMED to have done so. It flew 1600 KM total (860NM), but only about 550 KM NM offshore (300NM), as I recall.
The longest rescue was almost twice as far offshore, and considerably longer along shore, as well. A Black Hawk, piloted by the USAF Air National Guard flew 750 NM off shore (1400 KM - half the way to the Azores!) and then rescued a crewman, then 750NM back to shore! It was dispatched from Long Island, NY to Halifax, and flew there non-stop, as well, about 500 NM, 925 KM. Thus its total distance flown was 3250 KM, although the real challenge is the offshore radius, 1400 KM.
Here are the articles:
http://www.airforce.dnd.ca/news/2003/02/14_e.asp
"On December 8, a Cormorant helicopter based in Gander, Nfld. flew its longest trip,
a 1,600-kilometre oddessy, to rescue a seriously injured crewman from a Norwegian bulk carrier. The trip included a refueling stop on the Hibernia oilrig."
http://www.philippecolin.net/106thRQW.html
"In December 1994, the 106th launched two HH-60s from Gabreski Airport (New York State) on a mission that would take them to Halifax, Canada and then,
750 miles out over the Atlantic to search for survivors of the Ukrainian merchant vessel Salvador Allende. The freighter had foundered and sunk in heavy seas almost 800 miles at sea. By the time the two helicopters and their crews arrived over the search area, most of the ship's crew had perished. After searching the sea, a survivor was spotted by an helicopter crew member and the two HH-60s prepared to put a pararescueman in the water to save him. TSgt. james Dougherty jumped into the water and retrieved the last living member of the crew. Then, the two helicopters began the arduous seven-hour return flight to Halifax, Nova Scotia. "
The Canadian authorities and Press were notified about this error and have never done anything to correct it.