Jimlad,
Well put. We were often getting requests from various agencies for Chinook support. IIRC these requests were scrutinised in terms of
PR value, crew training and to ensure that an equivalent civilian company was not being cut out of a fee-paying job. Clearly, in the case of Chinook, there are no comparable heavy-lift machines so, often, it came down to
PR or training value. Recent Ops and the demands on the airframes/crews have reduced the opportunities but it remains feasible eg
meteor lift ,
flood defence repair , and helping feed the animals (
) in
Northern Ireland.