Sendem - as soon as you are tasked, ARCC are informed and it appears on the RCS, all of our SAR flights know the state of the whole of the UK because of this system that the MCA won't let you have. Just how many aviation assets does your MRCC have?
Have you ever been to Kinloss to see what your tasking authority does - your oversimplified statement would suggest not.
3D was the one who stated you don't have a direct line - are Portland and Lee operating to different rules?
As for your last post, you well know what I was commenting on regarding second standby - you don't have a seconds crew and we do, is that simple enough for you.
And, oh yes, we do do it very differently in the RAF. The difference is mainly in ethos, we constantly strive to be better at our job, improve our capability, improve our equipment, revise our SOPs (ever heard of them). We don't just tick the contractual boxes and send anyone away who has a good idea, justifying that it isn't in the contract so we won't get paid for it.
Gaspode - yes but it didn't have problems with gearboxes cracking and dumping oil everywhere - it just had some avionic issues that should have been corrected at Boscombe Down.