Hi Crab
Heard a funny thing recently - someone in an Air Ambulance recruiting role said that SAR hours couldn't be counted as HEMS hours..........what on earth do they think SAR aircraft spend half their lives doing????
Unfortunately, the definition of HEMS is written into European Law now and that means, like it or not, you can't count UK military SAR hours as HEMS because, well HEMS is HEMS and SAR is SAR and actually they are different - I suspect the opportunities for a SAR pilot to land in an un-surveyed 2D landing site in a city centre industrial complex are reasonably rare - Generally, ex SAR pilots make quite good HEMS pilots, the ones we sometimes struggle with are those that won't learn because they already know it all but we get those from all walks of life.
We can however, use SAR hours to count towards the requirement for
"500 hours’ operating experience in helicopters, gained in an operational environment similar to the intended operation"
Cheers
TeeS