Originally Posted by
Trevor the lover
"I overheard a conversation the other day that included a discussion of 604 performance. If I heard correctly, to achieve the required SAR drop speeds the 604 would need to be flying with full flap / slats."
No not even close Layman. Whoever is giving you your info should be shoved in a blender. Firstly, the 604 has no slats. As for the speed - nope, doing a RAT drop test flight has the aircraft back at under 140kt with just one stage of flaps. So drop speeds with one stage of flaps, Flap 20, is no problem. BTW, there are 3 stages of flaps.
Trevor if you are flying that machine on SAR at 140 kts you are incredibly light and approaching the crash site (yours). The 604 variants may come with or without slats, you would have been better off with them.
Furthermore selection of aircrew by an HR department without experience in SAR is hardly an endorsement of that proffesionals experience and capability, AMSA had an opinion of people who they would like to have seen supporting the implementation of this new contract, these recommendations were ignored and possibly put the aircrew at a disadvantage, such was Cobhams desire to " create" a new culture.