GulliBell,
Like I said, the Army can waive any of the minimum requirements as they are the customer. Once boeing or AH pick their pilots they still need to be accepted by the customer, particularly if they are under teh minimum requirements. Also it could be argued that the training liability is greater to teach someone to do the job, (the army rules under which they will operate are different to the civil rules) rather than to give them a type endorsement. (They obviously still have to comply with Civil rules as well but the military have different ways of doing a lot of things)
For these reasons I would be very surprised if an ex or soon to be ex military pilot who has already done the job doesnt get the job. Especially if they already fly Hueys, (this reduces the conversion time) or if they fly blackhawks but may not have 250 M.E. PIC yet.
As for going to Horn Island, The guys will have their hands full meeting the requirements of the contract. I'd imagine the penalties would be pretty huge if the whole army training centre has to stop flying because there is no SAR aircraft available.
Maybe some of the guys that did the interviews will read this and feel compelled to add some comments about the questions they got asked and also the questions they got answered.
LF
