Bootneck - I know that all the Bristows S61's did not have the same fit, such that whilst any of the normal 1st standby SAR aircraft were full autopilot, if that was u/s and a temporary replacement was used, it was likely to be a non-autopilot aircraft. Is anyone going to tell me that was never the case and such a S61 never held state at a civ SAR flight?
As for training and checks - we have discussed at length that the mil does considerably more training, you and others say that is what makes us more expensive - by your logic it also makes us better operators
Is there a team that visits each civSAR flt every 18 months to check the admin, engineering and the flying like SAR Standards does? That is in addition to an annual cat check, sim trg, IRT and periodic QHI and trg off checks. Exactly what checks do you have complete as a civSAR pilot? IRT and a base and line check?
The Valley aircraft had been hovertaxiing in cloud trying to reach the casualty but developed a utility hyd leak (no winching then) and shut down at a valley LS to investigate. On start-up they suffered a serious gearbox problem that required the aircraft to be airlifted by Chinook back to Valley. As 3D said - sh*t happens but since there are reports of a S92 in OZ having a major gearbox problem it isn't confined to the poor old Sea King is it?