Tonka Toy - I'm not sure why any of my comments should make you nervous and I think you should understand helicopter NVG ops and how we use them and FLIR. On an overwater night search for a person, we would use the FLIR on autoscan and be looking out of the window using NVG - the FLIR would only be effective if the moisture content of the air is low and there is a good thermal contrast.
NVG allow almost daytime flexibility in manoeuvring the aircraft, not something that can be done looking at a FLIR screen and allow you to search visually just as you would by day (although everything is in shades of green). You certainly cannot fly night overland at low level using a FLIR tv screen and at the moment no UK SAR helos have a heads up FLIR display - therefore NVG is the answer. The modern NVG tubes are very good but the quality of the NVG picture varies with light levels and weather - NVG is a piece of p*ss on a nice night but very demanding when the conditions are not so benign. Lots of training is the answer because, just like instrument flying, NVG flying is a perishable skill. When and if the civsar crews are allowed to use goggles they will have a large training burden to add to what they already do - we do almost as much night flying as we do day flying.