What a great thread -eventhough sometimes getting far from constructive debate...
Her is my 5 cents worth. I had a privilege to fly several operational missions both with Coastguard (then Bristows) S61N in Lee on Solent and spent several days with 202.Sqn in Lossiemouth. Back home I work hoist ops in mountains daytime only (for now) (but do other things at night including NVG, FLIR) and can say that both experiences were great - those five days in Lossie were one of the finest (and exciting) days of my life!
What I observed was:
S61N was much better equipped aircraft and also much more reliable for my taste - I only couldn`t understand why they were not using NVGs, since they put so much money into those (bit old) machines and crews had their military experience with NVGs, so???.
Both crews were doing things in very similar ways as Bristows crew were all ex-military - older, more experienced but, these skills are still a bit perishable, as we all know...
I was amazed on how much training time was available to RAF crews - we spent a good 3 hours a day training, compared to much less at Lee. What is best? If you ask beancounters I know what the answer would be.. but cannot and will not agree.
SeaKings are, for my taste, in need of... well, retirement. As I have engineer background I easily noticed several things that surprised me and even all those great engineers up in Lossiemouth could not make a miracle.
But, on the other hand, I would say that "cheaper" does not necessarily mean lowering standards - it can also mean improving efficiency. In Lee, there was only one engineer on duty, but dispatch reliability was very good while in Lossie, three engineers "attacked" only the hoist after each overwater sortie (washing, etc.), let alone other work done, but still could not prevent helicopter going off line too often - by my humble opinion.
Back home, after landing, I do helicopter postflight and the hoist cable inspection and cleaning by myself.. and other crew will lend a hand if necessary.
I cannot agree that civillians cannot maintain standards to RAF/Navy levels - particularly as long as RAF and Navy suppllies experienced crews to commercial operators. Once this source is depleted, it can still be done-even from scratch. The only question is, who will pay and if there will be enough money put aside to do the proper training-and keep the acquired skills sharp.
May I ask a question to the audience-why London Metropolitan police, as first non-military non-big commercial company operator in UK has such big difficulties bringing hoist operations to life? Does it have anything to do with "it is OUR calling" attitude?
hoistop