auto-hover features. Are these helpful to SAR pilots
Here's my brief two cents' worth - auto hover is an absolute must for safety overwater when references are poor eg at night or in fog. It's also very useful, and increases safety, for daytime overwater hovering under appropriate circumstances. When you have plenty of accurate, adjacent references (such as a whacking great ferry on its side in calm water), though, you can be absolutely accurate and react quickly to voice-marshalling without using auto-hover.
For example, you would use the AFCS to let down over water in sea fog, and use it in conjunction with other equipment such as radar to close with a ship. Once in close visual contact with the ship, however, you might wish to disengage some or all of the automatic features and carry out the winching whilst maintaining a manual hover. Once winching is completed you may choose to re-engage the AFCS before using automatic functions to climb safely away from the sea. Precisely what combination you would use would vary with the circumstances, the aircraft type, its AFCS capability and its equipment fit.
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