Cobham Special Mission

[SpecMissGuru]

AMSA's SAR tender was announced over 2 years ago, Perth has had no coverage since early August, Cairns no Cobham coverage since October, thank heaven for the current contractor that they still have a base in Brisbane, Essendon is shutting on Sunday, that will leave only 1 fixed wing tier 1 aircraft for the whole of the county.

Border Protection is running at 30% with 20+ pilots short to fulfil this operation, how do our borders stay intact when their is very limited coverage.

Is it to much to ask for 1 organisation to fulfil 2 special mission contracts at the same time, clearly Cobham are struggling and are not up to the job.

On the other hand the outgoing Tier 1 operator has been delivering an uninterrupted service for quite a few years now and they started on time and will deliver a service until the last day, or will it be their last day!!

[cLeArIcE]

I'm surprised they are having trouble getting pilots (especially FOs on the dash 8). I would love two work for them. The type of flying they do looks amazing but... From a career perspective I couldn't justify only flying 200-300 hours a year. I also assume the salary they offer won't get you very far in Broome!

[isartheory]

Border Protection running at 30%.....Gee the boats must be landing everyday.
Not hard to see that the airlines have ramped up recruitment...with even mainline Qantas recruiting. And if you were an airline you also would be raping and pillaging the highest trained and performing GA pilots in the country. No different to the same recruitment cycle that Australia saw happen when Virgin and Onestar started. Regardless of who had the contracts, both companies would be having recruitment issues. Very rare to find new generation pilots who don't have a jet itch.

[TBM-Legend]

Form the Coast Guard as part of the ADF if they're serious..

[Supermouse3]

Perth is up and running i believe, casa approval flight was last week.
I believe casa are part of the delay, Cobham were required to 'become' an authorized parts manufacturer because of the extensive mods required to the aircraft.
as such the Perth aircraft was flying back to Adelaide every month or so for casa approval flights for the mods carried out.
aircraft was previously operating as an experimental...

pretty sure Perth is up and running now with cairns and essendon to follow close behind.

[SpecMissGuru]

Perth is up and running i believe, casa approval flight was last week.
I believe casa are part of the delay, Cobham were required to 'become' an authorized parts manufacturer because of the extensive mods required to the aircraft.
as such the Perth aircraft was flying back to Adelaide every month or so for casa approval flights for the mods carried out.
aircraft was previously operating as an experimental...

pretty sure Perth is up and running now with cairns and essendon to follow close behind.

No the case Super.
From what I am hearing Perth will be the last base to go online, Cairns is the priority.

[FMTAfterburn]

Perth was due to start in August, they will not have an aircraft to replace the Dornier til 2017, sometime.
Of the aircraft in country one has been fitted with some sensors and did indeed do an AOC acceptance flight out of Perth recently, when the approval process is complete it is hoped to commence ops in Cairns as that is a critical area. Unless this happens, as a matter of fact there will be one Dornier to administer the whole country, I'm sure Aerorescue will continue to provide a sterling example until AMSA are forced to accept the Challenger. As far as the comment regarding manufacturing parts, that is a fundamental process to modding an aircraft for special missions and can not be offered as an excuse