Wasathingi, a question to your question - where's the radar and FLIR?, perhaps this is an old photo

What's next, no ability to drop a diesel dewatering pump, apparently so!!

I wonder who decided that? "Nah, forget that, I want a nice shiny jet to do SAR in".

How about you lot get the task requirements/tender document/contract/etc etc and find out what it/they actually require before criticising what appears to be being (not) provided compared to the old deal?

Cobham contract says it will drop all the standard items as tested and approved by AMSA, this is another variation away from that contract. Other items will not be droppable also. Cobham just haven't fessed up to it yet, one at a time until they try and swap a dash 8 or two in which although less capable does have a reasonable size door. Fixed wing SAR is about finding survivors and keeping them alive. You need an array of items to be dropped accurately

These will all be down for major maintenance pretty quick due to have to record 10 cycles for every 1! Haha woops.

Oh well, the ensuing court case when Cobham are sued for breach of contract should be interesting, hey! Any chance one of you folks who seem to know what Cobham will or won't do before its done might care to share the winning lotto numbers? :rolleyes:

I understand, very 3rd hand, that a young man was offered the FO position on the 604 based at Essendon. He, for reasons unknown, had wanted a seat on the Dash 8 so he requested that. Was told that those positions were filled and therefore unavailable. When he then said, oh well the 604 it is, he was told that as he had expressed a wish for something else he was no longer acceptable for the 604 and therefore was rejected.

If I was a betting man I would say the legal people are probably a little ahead of a bunch of disgruntled pilots. What is the definition of "standard equipment" would be my first thought.
Again a bunch of disgruntled pilots who possibly base their objections on rumour and Il will think they are smarter than all the management at AMSA and one of the larger companies that deal with this type of operation world wide.

Plovett, he learnt a lesson then didn't he?

Not trying to prove anything. But I am saying the full service will not be ready on time, or budget, and the aircraft type is a backward step.

Service delivery
 

Well one week to go before the unique SAR jet contract starts in Perth.
I will be curious to see how Amsa are going to mitigate the lack of capability to the seafaring and outback public when this partially compliant aircraft comes " online". Although it is not unusual to have some issues unresolved with a new and complicated aircraft on contract, there will be deficiencies which will take some time to resolve. In the meantime keep your tinny in the shed.

Not to worry there's always to good old local aeroclub to muster out there as first responders......??...Oh sorry, forgot! the government regulated them out of business.

Online in a week, not what I am hearing.

Re-advertising for captains in Perth and Essendon. One needs to take a long, introspective look at oneself if one can't crew a 604 based in Melbourne!!

Where do you get "can't crew" from?

This job was advertised around 12 months ago. Now, they have re-advertised for captains for the Perth and Melbourne bases. So, it seems that they "can't crew" these positions. Simple?

OR maybe back "around 12 months ago" they advertised and employed sufficient crew to start up the contract however leave the final recruitment until closer to the contract start date. Saves $$$$. Why have all crews employed on day 1 sitting around waiting?

They will get crew, I have no doubt about that. Not me on that sort of money but you can bet lots of dollars that there will be pilots out there happy to accept a job.

Maybe.....

And that MAYBE is very big and growing bigger by the day.

Proof will be in the pudding next week when AMSA expect Perth to have full coverage.

Sar jet unavailable for tasking, and I hear that the Dornier leaves Perth tomorrow. Does anyone else have a problem with this?

The word is they don't have their AOC either

Why wouldn't the jet be available for tasking? That sounds like gross negligence from AMSA & Cobham if they had no coverage!

You said it first.

The 604 sim is going non stop in ml at the moment, or at least looks that way to me.

Getting Sim endorsements doesn't help get them over the line to be online in Perth. A little bit more to it than that.

XNC was damaged today too, during drop tests the stores hit the lower engine cowl, little damage but i don't think CASA was happy...

That's the second time one of the aircraft have been damaged during trials.... Not good.

So if a store can hit the engine cowl, what are the chances of a chute getting sucked into the intake? That would be a bad thing, right? Would the 604 recover from a engine failure at low level & low speed and be able to climb & return? Or should they be adding floats to it?

How can they expect to do SAR and drop to people in distress if they can't get it right on training flights

Let's all throw our hands in the air, give up, and walk away. :ugh:

In the meantime what asset is online to respond to a SAR on the west coast? Why was the challenger not fully tested prior to delivery? Let us hope no lives lost over a dodgy contract.

The answer to your first question is there isn't. As the the second question thats a very good question.

Isn't that the whole point of training flights? You know, to train?

Indeed it is but when the aircraft keeps getting hit by the stuff they throw out indicates to me they haven't got it right.

Ultimately there will be concessions made and procedures developed to throw something out with a reasonable level of safety, however this will mean the current array of AMSA stores will be cut back. Larger stores which are most useful for survivors will not be feasible, accuracy is assured to be well out of present tolerences. AMSA always wanted to be able to grow into bigger and a more varied range of despatchable items, including guided stores. We can forget about that. This is probably why they resisted employing experienced current operators, there would have been too many red flags raised too soon, only a token few made it across.

Yes, this is a big part of the problem. And, they couldn't attract the right caliber of new blood either, with the package on offer. I'm not holding my breath...

http://some.ly/KFqg8a

Wrong speeds, wrong cargo door, wrong aircraft. Border force might be getting some flash jets in the near future and AMSA will be scratching their heads wondering how they ended up with 3 clapped out Dash8s. Maybe it was the plan all along?

A week since the start of the CL604 contract in Perth and still no coverage....Hmm

Wait till the media finds out there is no coverage, or someone is missing & the families want to know what they did to to "temporarily" cover till the jets are ready.....

Crab fisherman missing from boat off WA's Gascoyne coast - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

A dedicated search aircraft would be handy right about now. It is almost unforgivable that a gap in capability be on the west coast. Heads should roll.

Incomprehensible. 2 weeks ago there was coverage but we all know what happened then. But don't worry Cobham will have it sorted. Just don't ask them as you won't get an answer.