Is that a short transit flight from A-B to drop off the firearms officers and then go back to pick up the observers that you already had on board because we aren't talking about flying without observers
Ahhhh???? yes you were (post 1730 again)
apart from dumping the 2 observers ?
And so was wagging finger, read the posts.
Remember we are talking about exceptional cicumstances, the unit will do whatever it takes to get those firearms officers on site quickly.
Who ever mentioned a firearms guy sitting in the front?
No one, I was illustrating a point that the front seat could still be occupied by an observer, weight permitting
Unless you are in a unit that regularly flies more than 12 hrs in a 24 hr period, that is absolute nonsense.
Not neccesarily. Lets think about it a minute. (something you fail to do regularly)
First; the figure 1700 hrs/year has been thrown about. That is a lot of very busy helicopters that obviously wont be airbourne for 12 hours but there is a high possibility that at least one will be up at any given time in a particular region.
Second; A shooter pops up in a Sheffield (chosen because they wont have a helicopter there). Lets pretend North Mids and Humberside are both sitting on the ground at their respective bases, crew are feet up in the office or tea room. West Yorkshire is airborne on tasking but still has plenty of fuel on board. Which one are you going to send to Sheffield. Quite possibly more than one for the suggested situaton but the first on site will be the one thats already flying. Of course in this situation they will all be slightly down on fuel by the time the get to Sheffield.
Yes, there could arise a situation where the local helicopter is on the ground fully fueled and they want to lift the firearms officers from their current location.
Yes in this situation it could well take time to offload enough fuel and equipment to lift.
Of course on site engineers(what a clever idea) would help but no doubt NPAS are in favour of a single maintenance base 3 or 4 hours drive from most units(increased downtime, less available flying hours).