JB - you miss my points entirely - I am not talking about Gannet and 771 SAR crews who train on a regular basis - I am talking about your 'secondary role brigade' because that is where the 2 incident signals I referred to (and I did have personal experience of one of those - the other was subject of a detailed incident report with little room left for conjecture).
You also keep banging on about how easy hovering is for pilots - of course it is, it's our job - it is not very frequent that poor service from the front end causes problems winching, it is lack of skill and practise at the back end because, as we all know, winching goes from 'la la la steady' to 'f8ck me!' in an instant.
A SAR captain has exactly no influence on what goes on on the end of the wire - once the winchman is out of the door it is purely down to the winch-op and the winchman himself. All the captaincy and airmanship in the world at the front end can't affect that - all you do is assess the overall risk, approve the basic winching plan and then give the winchman clearance to go out of the door.
SPanish - I have been instructing and operating in front-line SAR for the last 10 years and am still doing it so I do have some knowledge of the subject.
Jim, it will depend on how open and honest reporting is in the post mil SAR world, at the moment all the form Rs and DFSORS are easily accessible and widely circulated so that fellow operators can learn from other's mistakes and experiences. Since MORs exist in civil aviation and the MCA will have access to all post SAR reports, one hopes that the desire not to air one's dirty laundry in public will not overcome the need for a free flow of information.
If we end up with two contractors for the new service, how much co-operation and cross-pollination will there be when KPIs and contract penalties might be at risk?
You only have to read some of the comments on other threads (especially the North Sea) to realise that every company will tell the world they are doing a brilliant job and yet the truth from their customers or employees is often very different.