Tanewha - thanks for the update.
Crash - are you saying that if the CG had such a problem they would hush it up? As Tanewha said it was a technical problem that was encountered unexpectedly and dealt with correctly. We do carry a second winch, it is electrically operated and rather slow and has never actually been required on a SAROP. We would love to have twin hoists but as others are so fond of telling me, it all comes down to money and a need to justify the expense.
Decks - you have rather underlined my point - if you are the person sitting on a mountain with a broken leg, you probably won't die if you have to wait until morning or have to be carried off the hill by MRT. But if it was you and there was a helicopter available you would most likely want to be rescued pdq. There are countless numbers of people who have been rescued from the mountains in UK who would not have survived if they had not been rescued by SAR helicopters - that's why we do it.
There seems to be a subtle agreement that the military SAR does provide a greater capability because of equipment and training levels - but at a perceived cost since no-one can accurately compare the cost of civvy and military SAR. To make that comparison meaningful you would have to either reduce our training and manning levels to that of the MCA (and accept a reduction in capability) or increase the MCA up to the military levels. Then and only then can you get an accurate comparison, anything else is wishful thinking and missing the old 'bang for your buck' or capability for cost element.
Ask all those who do get rescued what colour the helicopter is and they won't care, just as long as someone comes to get them and doesn't say 'sorry but our employer doesn't pay enough for us to do that job, ring again in the morning.'
3Dcam - I have looked at the 139 threads and there isn't much hard info there - I assume it will be used for short range single or double lift jobs that are bread an butter for S coast flights during the summer months so payload won't be an issue, good single engine performance will be a godsend.
Arctic Warrior - there you go again with your incisive debating skills
