I realise this thread was created due to comments regarding Cobham SAR jobs, and focus is being placed on recruiting difficulties because of the radical departure from the norm for Sar. The recruiting is further complicated due to a conflicting range of operational imperatives, not too many people have the varied skill sets required for this work.
21 tonne jet, lots of inertia, and a lovely slick wing that needs speed.
Requirement for visual search at 120 -140 kts
Drop the current inventory of stores, big objects out of a small door.
Visual search (critical) with a low wing aircraft, not globally accepted.
An expectation that drops will be conducted at 100 -200 ft accurately.
Current drop speed approx 180 kts plus.
Do all of this as much as possible by simulation to save non revenue flying.
The aircraft has already been grounded after drop trials resulted in the store impacting the aircraft.some one earlier pointed out that there was zero chance of an engine ingesting drop items, I bet they also thought that there would be no chance of stores impact. If you have done this job for a long time keep looking for the items that might bite you. If you are new, be very very careful, and don't be cocky in areas you are yet to learn.
Cobham may sort their way through this, and if they do I will publicly applauded them. The issue is it should never have been this hard.
Aviation is a risk based activity, we try and mitigated it every step of the way. In this case AMSA,s selection has tried to put a square peg in a round hole. How many more contract variations are yet to come. I sincerely hope no one gets hurt, even better if some lives are saved.
Very high level of difficulty