I read this thread and the associated aggressive comments with some embarressment as a rotorhead. I understand that some people lost their jobs and I know that can hurt.
I wonder how many foreign pilots, crewman, engineers etc are employed by the current contractor in NSW, are there any?
There is quite a bit of reference about increase in cost to the community, as a taxpayer I do not feel that I should have to reach into my pocket to support a community organisation providing a great service that ultimately my government should use my taxes to provide. I am not criticising community organisations or volunteers, we need them, however I do question the relevance of the gripe about the increase in cost to the community. Have our taxes increased? The money provided by big corporations as sponsorship I am pretty sure counted as a great tax break for said corporations (reduced taxation income to the government), probably also reflected in increased fees for car,house insurance, banking fees etc by said corporations?
I think that it is very easy to suggest theories (as I have done), but a little deep thought may force us to question ourselves whether our suggested facts, really are facts? Food for thought.
It seems sad that there is some underlying and not so underlying delight and wish about aviation related incidents or possible incidents (I know it is a rumour network) in relation to this contract. A lot of us on here are aircrew or engineers, it is a shame that some of us can take delight in other people making errors in a dangerous job. We should all be careful what we wish for. We have all made and will continue to make mistakes in our aviation operations, as long as we do not break rules deliberately, then it would be nice and fuzzy if we could stick together sometimes.
I am all for the best service being provided to the community, if some of us feel that it is not, then we should take our politicians to task with sensible, factual unemotive letters to our local members.
