Hi all from a newbie with an extremely biased interest in the SAR-H contract. I am one of the engineering team located at Valley and find the comments regarding our struggling engineering section a little surprising. There were no doubts that at the initial stages of the SKIOS contract, Sea King experience was, at the very least, lacking!
If it were me I would tackle Valley first because the engineering there is still struggling and it would be easy to improve on the availability and look good
However "still struggling" does not quite cover SAR eng ops at Valley. Considering airframe numbers have at times reached 7 Mk3's with 8 people per shift. This has only proven the resolution and determination of engineers at SKIOS RAF Valley, who through professionalism and outstanding SAR ethos have adapted, via a forced upon learning curve, to become some of the best Sea King engineers I have ever had the pleasure of bodging a job with.
Then again crab could simply be referring to the fact that either new platform would make Valley stick out as an extremely proud thumb in the briar patch of Sea King aircraft.
I for one hope, amongst all my 32 colleagues, that some of our jobs will saved.
