Night Watchman
What you forgot to add is that the RAF have only had FLIR installed over the last two years, despite trying to get it since the early 80's! Bristow has had FLIR fitted on their cabs since almost the start of the MCA contracts, I believe?
What I find disappointing from
[email protected] and
crabette is that they both display a very biased opinion against Bristow. They both appear to have a long-held opinion that Bristow is and has never been capable of doing SAR "properly", and they even appear to like the fact that CHC are now going to do it. Do they think that another civil operator will do the job differently?
There has always been in the RAF a certain disliking of Bristow doing SAR ever since that company started with the S61 at Sumburgh. Most of the comments that have been made have been totally unjustified and unsubstantiated. Perhaps if they came out of their little fox-holes occasionally and took a better look at the world, they would see that Bristow has performed a very professional service over the years. At the start the crews were mainly ex-military anyway (including ex-RAF!), but today there are many straight-through civil SAR pilots and crewmen. They are as good as their military colleagues, and they don't tend to have as biased an opinion as some!
I, for one, am tired of the bickering going on by the "
crab/ettes". They seem very pro-CHC almost as if they were involved in some way with the recent awarding of the new SAR contracts for the MCA. Do they not realise that the crews who will man the new MCA aircraft will be the ex-Bristow ones anyway at the start? These guys will be as professional for CHC as they will have been for the Bristow. How good the management of the new operations will be will only be seen once CHC is running things. That debate will have to wait until next year!