It needs to be appreciated that a number of things can conspire against non-military SAR crews that are trying to achieve their wet winching training and wets with a live survivor in a dinghy are much less likely to take place than in the military. The reasons for this include, but are not limited to
1. The inability to live winch when committed. This can be the biggest barrier to a number of forms of winching training. An airspeed of under 15 knots in the hover is unlikely to give torques low enough to permit live winching and depending on the conditions of the day, nearer 20 knots may actually be needed for wet winching
2. A surface vessel has to be sought locally rather than one being contractually required to provide support. This therefore requires a third party to be both agreeable and available
3. Using a survivor may result in that survivor's Flight Time Limitations and European Working Time Directive hours approaching or accumulating to beyond their limit. Their mandatory time off between shifts may be compromised and any survivor coming in whilst off duty may claim an overtime payment. For all these reasons, wets with a live survivor as military SAR may know it is less likely to take place.
4. Safety equipment may not be available. Full time SE Fitters are not employed and therefore rearcrew will be reliant upon the employee whose secondary duty is Safety Equipment having prepared and serviced sufficient wet drill equipment. If they are on leave, this may not be the case.
5. Deploying a survivor in a dinghy from the aircraft is much more hazardous in stronger downwash. The survivor therefore needs to be pre-prepared to deploy from the surface vessel in support.
Night wets as you may know them with a survivor in a dinghy are therefore not an impossibility but there are considerable challenges getting all the pre-requisites in the right place at the right time.