3D cam - send'em's handle was obviously too subtle for me - does yours mean you are a 3 dimensional camera??
It might have been his use of 'we' when stating that he does have a direct line (we were talking about SAR flights not MRCCs)- he did not highlight the fact he was from MCA in his post. If he had then you wouldn't have to shout at me about it - I replied to his statement in good faith.
If it pisses you off that we do things a certain way and are proud of our high standards then watch out in 2012 when you have to start doing all the stuff that we do now. You won't be able to maintain the standards we have now across all the disciplines because you won't be allowed all the training hours (IMC PLB homings, radar letdowns, FLIR searching, NVG, Mountain flying etc etc etc) because it will cost too much and some beancounter will make you try and cut your flying hours because it's an easy thing to do. Look at the Police and AA - it's mostly on-the-job training because otherwise it costs money.
Yes the FLIR took a long time to get but that wasn't from lack of trying and eventually the money was found to enhance our capability without having to make a profit on it.
I may be trying to save a lost cause but until it is proven that civilianising military SAR will do anything other than reduce capability then I will keep going - I'm not doing it to win friends (probably just as well), just prevent the British Public from being short-changed.
It's a shame I missed ropedope's post but I suspect it was long on abuse and short on fact. You seem to think I am in some ivory tower and don't know anyone outside military SAR - I don't make any of this stuff up and many tit-bits come from guys who are doing your job and recognise that the Holy Grail of civilian SAR is not so holy.
If there is arrogance in attitude perhaps it is those who think they can do more with less that have the problem
