17. Kent Air Ops would only be responsible for deploying the aircraft and the flight following function for aircraft safety.
Flight following can only be achieved with 2 way radio comms. Therefore, according to the Kent proposal, one ac radio will always have to be monitoring the NPASCR.
30. It is a requirement of the Police Air Operations Manual that a force control room ‘flight follow’ any police aircraft operated within their force area.
And here's me thinking that the
PAOM Sect 3, Chap 4, 'Flight Following' said,
'When possible, a pilot shall maintain communication with an ATSU and make it aware of routeing, operating area and future intentions, so that timely overdue action may be taken, if necessary.
.
Should communication not be possible because of terrain factors, the pilot shall establish and maintain communication with the relevant police control room.'
It does say in Sect 2 chap 4, para 2.2;
'the aircraft commander shall ensure... the FCR or other designated co-ordination agency is aware of the aircrafts whereabouts at all times', but nowhere can I find the part that the proposal tells us; "It is a requirement of the Police Air Operations Manual that a force control room ‘flight follow’ any police aircraft operated within their force area".
Perhaps whoever looked at this for the proposal found Chapt 2's sentence on flight following and ignored the whole Chapter on it.
So IMHO, in reference to the responsibilities of the NPASCR (whoever or wherever that may be), that now only leaves the deployment issues, or have we already covered that one?