Originally Posted by
Clever Richard
As someone who is only an occasional visitor to this thread, my reading of the last few pages suggests the preparations for the imminent SAR contract are running smoothly apart from the following minor points:
1. The AW189 will be late and the crews originally scheduled to fly them are hastily being retrained on the S-92.
2. When the AW189 is certificated, the temporary S-92 crews will be retrained on the AW189.
3. One of the original proposed bases (Manston) is now unavailable and an alternative has yet to be found.
4. The SAR Training Manager has yet to be nominated.
Is that a fair assessment of the ground truth?
1. Minor aspects of the AW189 were always going to be late without impacting entry into SAR service. Not many now betting on AW189 at Inverness on April Fools Day. Many of the aircrew are expected to be the highly-capable Bristow Transition Team who are experienced S-92 guys anyway and can fill the gap until the Managed Transition aircrew are trained.
2. Inevitably. Any with AW139 type-rating will be on a short program.
4. Early Bristow publicity about the UK SAR team listed Paul Richardson as Training Manager but he's an engineering guy. Also Tony Campbell as SAR Rearcrew Training Coordinator. Rowan Greenwood joined in June from the CAA in a training role but is now Director Global SAR Operations.