The angler was lucky not to have been intubated and cannulated whilst he was on his way up to the aircraft since Dr Ed was his winchman!!
tonyosborne - as I understand it, the main advantage of having the aircraft on the military register is that the crews (civ or mil) can operate to military rules and regs, especially concerning things like low flying and NVG use. Although no-one has actually stood up and said it, I believe both contractors would prefer the aircraft to be mil registered (I think they end up being dual registered so they can be returned to full civil registration quite easily if required).
With only a few months to go to the announcement of the preferred bidder and both consortia trying to find ways of keeping within the budget - it is highly likely that the bids will undergo extensive financial scrutiny because the public purse is empty; all the hard work and attention to detail by the SARH team will be wasted and we will just get what we always feared - the cheapest bidder
