Rocker - You raised some valid, correct and constructive comments...stuff I had not considered, so thanks. I am sure there are plenty of guys around who would like to do some co-pilot stuff, but given the chance to advance to a PIC position, I am sure it would become a revolving door for the co-pilots in no time at all, as EMS positions seem pretty stable throughout the land of Oz.
I am sure there would be aircrew guys or girls there who may not want to change from being crewies and I am sure this has been factored into the whole idea...is the AW139 not certified for SPIFR anyway? The way of the world these days is to always improve and ongoing study requirements are seemingly becoming a constant in order to stay ahead of the next person and generally better oneself. If it means doing a CPL for those who want to, then great for them. For those who don't, that is fine also...its probably going to become the way of the future and become industry best-practice so once those operators move on, the new standard will probably become a CPL combined with crewing. As for the argument of not really wanting to be pilots, that is true...however, the guys are basically doing the role of a pilot at present, with the exception of actually flying hands on.
Either way you look at it, sure it would be great to have two full-time pilots onboard at all times, however the machine can be flown SPIFR (or so I believe it can be) and having a trained co-pilot next to them, who also doubles as an aircrewman is a huge advantage. I am sure if cost and weight were no option, they'd go for a dual pilot configuration for flight. Once you add up a once off basic CPL for 16 odd aircrewman vs 16 odd co-pilots on full-time wages for however long they use two pilots, the savings are substantial in terms of training the aircrew officers to start with. Add to this their operational background (albeit limited flying background), its the best case scenario given what they have to work with. Its a step forward whichever way you look at it, which is always better then a step backwards.
Are their any aircrew from within who are for/against the idea. Anyone from EMQ care to comment? Be interesting to hear general thoughts.