Crab – Although if I might say so a little blinkered at times, I take my hat off to your defence of both Mil SAR and the S-61 on this thread, but you would do well to give a little more consideration to what – hopefully – the future could hold for UK SAR.
Both platforms operated by CHC are certified to the latest FAR/JAR Part 29, Amendment 47 requirements and a point that is often overlooked, is that both are at the beginning of their service lives, so we can expect to see a great deal of investment and improvements to both types over the coming years.
Upon entering service, I cannot think of any aircraft that hasn’t had it’s problems and I suspect that a great deal of pressure is on both OEM’s to step up to the plate and iron out the in-service issues that both ships currently have.
No one doubts the excellent reputation the S-61 has received over the years as a SAR platform, but even with new blades and an avionics suite she’s still an old bird, built using older technologies and requiring higher maintenance per flight hour than her more modern counterparts and dare I say it, is likely less reliable as well.
As we are talking about a 25-year contract, does it make sense to be flying around in 2037 in a ship designed and certified way back in the 1950’s and also do you think that any OEM would relish the thought of supporting such an old platform some 25+ years from now?