Oh Crab; you old wind-bag. Give it a rest why don't you.
Imagine my surprise - we're back to personal insults when relevant questions are asked about the training.
There are a fixed number of people who have recent, relevant SAR NVD experience - not just teaching on an OCU , but operational front-line SAR tuition - and few of those have taught basic NVD as well.
Most of the ones I can think of are either still in the military or only just leaving to join Bristow and somehow I doubt that any homegrown civsar talent has any comparable level of experience.
I sincerely hope the training the new contract guys and girls get is top-notch because they aren't going to get anything like the amount of continuity training that RAFSAR was allowed.
It's a perishable skill and mixed white light and NVD takes practice, especially in crappy weather, blowing snow, recirculating spray etc.
Being an ex-Afghan warrior has little validity in the SAR environment and the hard won lessons from years of milsar should not be ignored - who would imagine that flying through a height bug without acknowledging it would be acceptable practice on NVD? Is that a Bristow SOP perchance?????
Try to do this sort of stuff on the cheap and it will bite someone on the ar*e - I don't care who does it, just that it is done properly.