Llamaman,
Having just seen you post, I feel obliged to correct the facts - again, not because it matters to Bristow and the people who will work for them, but because some of the nonsense on here paints some people in an unfairly poor light (and, worryingly, the nonsense appears to be borne of genuine ignorance rather than trolling!). So if I may:
All recent courses have over-run. For instance, last Jan's finished in August
rather than the advertised June!
For a start 203 doesn't advertise finish dates (and hasn't for some time, because of the multitude of factors which affects rate of progress). Secondly, while that course last year did last longer than most, the course immediately before that one started in August 2011 and were all complete by Christmas (Christmas 2011, for clarity!). Thirdly, this time last year, the unit was hit by nearly half the rearcrew staff being grounded due to serious illnesses - this would affect any unit's progress, and sure enough the main OCU course was affected until replacements could be posted in and trained up.
is SAR instrument flying more difficult? I think not.
Probably not, though how much time do SH guys spend hovering in IMC 50' above the water? Of course, it's no harder than any other instrument hover - but there is minimal margin for error. Either way, whether you do all the IF in one go, or in two separate phases, the total time required is the same! The basic IF phase is definitely needed to set people up for the FCS flying; if you chose to get rid of the Proc IF, you would save a grand total of...one week.
Do you honestly think that a guy/girl who has completed three or more
front-line SH tours needs to do exactly the same sorties at SARTU and 203 Sqn as
an ab-initio student fresh out of Shawbury?
No - but very few of the guys and girls coming across to SAR have 3 or more tours under their belts. And most of the recent SH guys' hours have been either in theatre or training to go to theatre; these skills which they acquire, for which I have the utmost respect, don't necessarily prepare them for UK SAR. And there is now a generation of SH guys who have never done some of the core SAR skills (eg decks) because of changes within DHFS.
there are myriad opportunities to get them through more quickly
At first sight, this seems to make sense - yet you offer no examples at all other than the IF which, as I have said, would make little difference. Please pick three examples from your myriad to illustrate your point.