An interesting rant Saint Evil but you miss my whole raison d'etre on SAR threads entirely. I don't desire the whole SAR world to be light blue, SARH is an inevitability and probably (in the end) a good thing since the military seems keen to wash its hands of SAR. My recurring theme has been that if you are going to contractorise SAR then do it properly, not on the cheap, and not by claiming capability that doesn't exist.
All the anti-mil brigade's claims about mil SAR being more expensive always boil down to training, or lack of it and this appears to be a problem with Jigsaw. I know there are capable people there but even ex-HSU pilots will get blunt with no training, especially over the water at night.
If you have lost respect for me because I care about SAR and about the poor buggers who deserve a decent service when one is promised to them then so be it - I cannot sit back and say nothing about a system that is clearly not working.
Jigsaw aircraft may be non-declared but they are still UK SAR assets and should be expected to do any job they are tasked to. If the N Sea workers don't have confidence in them there must be a reason.
Thankyou for the lecture about utilisation of SAR assets and gaining experience in role - just remind me when you were a travelling Sqn QHI current on two types and doing shifts at 3 different flights for 5 years again
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