Can someone explain to me the requirement for years of training for rear crew...
What exactly is involved?
I fly on a SAR program myself (PIC) with a winch op and 2 winchmen (PJ’s)
It’s my 3rd time as PIC on Maritime and Mountain SAR over the years, with 3 different companies. I’m confused about what kind of training your guys are getting in the UK.
We have regular crew training sessions with no real time limit imposed, more or less train to proficiency ....
I’m not trying to minimize anyone’s role...We have a crew concept, and obviously have more and less experienced guys in different roles as winch-op, winchguy1, winchguy2 etc...
But I can’t understand the years of training involved...? Someone mentioned 2.5 years
Yes...bad wx and blowing hard!... it’s nice to have a smooth and panickproof crew out back, but these are basic character traits, reinforced with good training and some experience.
But I guess I think of rearcrew training to be something in the order of weeks of training, depending on tasking.......followed by extensive OTJ training in a junior position.
I have a junior guy in one of our rearcrews (Don’t know exactly how much experience he has, except he’s junior to the others..I know the winch-op has seven years as a winch-op though)
But given my druthers... on a difficult job..It'd be my choice to have him (Junior) do everything if I could...Not that the others are lacking in any way...just that he’s an outstanding character, and somehow, when he’s playing winch-op on a training run. Everything goes like clockwork. I can't explain why, or quantify/clarify his abilities
Again, I’m not trying to minimize anyone’s input or skills. Just looking I suppose, for idea’s to lift our own game, if in fact anything’s missing?
Thanks for any constructive input! Maybe someone could summarize what's involved in UK training. How the training time is utilized?
Thanks....