UK Police helicopter budget cuts

[PANews]

There seems to be very little leaking out of the police press offices about mutual aid working [or not] and even less [what is less than nothing?] coming out of NPAS sources about how well the mutual aid worked.

Now you would think that this was a perfect opportunity for air support in general and NPAS in particular to be crowing about how well a National resource worked under pressure.

There will have been problems of course and I do not expect anyone to be shouting too loud about the fact that the police forces surrounding London could not downlink their analogue images to a digital MP control centre, but every story can be turned into a silk purse if someone thinks about it....

Maybe I answered my own question. Think.

[Fortyodd2]

PAN,
perhaps it's not considered to be a major issue. After all, it's not as though London is hosting any major events in the near future................

[B.U.D.G.I.E]

i think you will find it was the mets fault for trying to do downlink on the cheap. Which considering the amount they had to spend seems a little daft.

[PANews]

But it seems the Met had belt and braces all the time and despite the doom-mongers they can deal better with their neighbours than I had thought.

This is the police and of course if you buy something and then replace it with something new and potentially better there are no points given for taking out the old and throwing it away and if you sell it the money goes to the Home Office. Put it on the shelf, you never know when you might need it!

So, yes they can do digital, but at the flick of a switch the old analogue is there too..... Surrey and Sussex are analogue.

It surprised me.

And of course the next question is how can Surrey trade downlink with Thames Valley? Both systems are made by ECS...... but.....

So next year NPAS has a lot of work to do to enable its fleet of spares to be able to fly here and there filling in..... radios..... downlinks..... maps.... none of them fit too well. This side of 2015 I cannot see a spare NPAS aircraft normally based in the north west being sent down to Sussex as a spare wholly upon its inability to talk to anyone, find its way or send them images!

The three spare aircraft are going to have to be regionalised simply to give them a chance operate meaningfully. No point installing a full street map of Darlington in an aircraft flying over Bournemouth 95% of the time.

So spare aircraft could be as rare as hens teeth!

[Wagging Finger]

Or we could go back to the good old days, dust off the real maps and try out our nav skills!

Improvise, adapt, overcome

[PANews]

And I think you will find that the B.U.D.G.I.E. dig at the Met downlink was overcome by them being willing to ......Improvise, adapt, overcome ....

They can, they have.

If they can it will be easy for others to follow - assuming the money is there.

[RotaryWingB2]

This side of 2015 I cannot see a spare NPAS aircraft normally based in the north west being sent down to Sussex as a spare wholly upon its inability to talk to anyone, find its way or send them images!

Except most forces now have, or have always had national maps, and if they don't, it's a fairly simple job to have them upgraded.

With regards to the downlink, if you want to get really technical, there is two different type of analogue systems.

Radios will not be too much of a problem, if at all.

I'm pro-nationalisation, but anti the method with which it's being introduced.

Plus I hate being lied to. (Less aircraft/better service)

[B.U.D.G.I.E]

It was not a dig just a statement of opinion. ECS kit was on the market when they had there 145's but it did seem a little odd when it was obvious that the rest of the uk that was going digital and ECS were in the frame for the contract. Yet they went with some one else which did not offer interoperability with other forces. Now there gonna be faced with a big bill if they want air support from outside of London.

[PANews]

Dig or not, this is all about the NPAS model [and it did not exist when they made that choice] - about having to be 'all the same' eventually.

Fragmented purchasing, a very real part of the current arrangement, is undertaken by every force except for the recent EC135P2 deliveries... you may recall many of the differences.... a handful of aircraft types.... North Wales uniquely having a set up that reversed the orbit everyone else did ...... different maps.... some analogue downlinks... some digital... different cameras.... mapping .... some buying leather jackets others not... it goes on and on...

Just look at the colour schemes.... and how many cried when they were forced into blue and yellow and how many 'got around it' by having a large lump of yellow or a small lump... checker squares on the tail.... a fin in yellow.... anything... They are all going to be the boring old same.

Well all that will [I think we all assume] go. But sorting the difference in short order will surely cost a great deal of money and eat into that claim of savings as sure as night follows day.

[J.A.F.O.]

sorting the difference in short order will surely cost a great deal of money

Who said that anyone was planning to do it in short order?

[mimma]

Pilot of Optica

Hi,
I am doing my dissertation on Optica edgley. Can I meet any pilot who operated this optica or any police helicopter pilot? I just need to consult about payload and other considerations what the pilot really feel in optica.

Thank you
mimma

[Wagging Finger]

North Wales uniquely having a set up that reversed the orbit everyone else did

Not unique, there is at least one another out there that sits on the wrong side and orbits the wrong way, you know who you are

[Digital flight deck]

Just like to return to the NPAS thing briefly. Are there any employment opportunities in this organisation, for non police types, and if so where are they advertised?

[Thomas coupling]

Digital: the aim of the "NPAS thing" is to reduce the service not increase it?? Every uniformed individual is/has been scrambling for a position on the "ARC" before the floods come.......
On the other hand.......you could be winding everyone up.........

[Digital flight deck]

Thomas sorry if you miss the point. The service may well get smaller, but a new organisation is rising from the ashes so the question still stands. If you do not know the answers to my questions so be it, but no it is not a wind up.

[Fortyodd2]

Digital,
One of the biggest issues facing NPAS is that so far, with 2 exceptions, none of those currently in the NPAS organisation has any real idea of what Police Aviation is, what it does, how it achieves it or what it is capable of - simply how much it costs. There are many people with many years and many thousands of flying hours experience in UK Police Aviation, pilots and observers, whose knowledge and advice has been completely ignored thus far as the priority here is not to produce a more effective or efficient service - simply a cheaper one.

At the age of 20, what is it that you think you can bring to the party that NPAS would be interested in??

[Digital flight deck]

A knowledge of growing mushrooms seems to qualify me. Seriously though, what I have or have not in the way of qualifications or experience is not the question, although at interview I am sure my advantages would come to the fore. I was just wondering what if any moves into setting up the back office staff have been made given the April 2012 as a start date. From what I have read there is very little of the substance required to run such an organisation in existence.

[B.U.D.G.I.E]

a job well done

Central Regional News (ITV Central Tonight) - ITV Local


125 mph chase caught on police helicopter footage.

[Mr_G_Box]

Orbiting to the left

There were a number of units that orbited to the left, a sadly reducing number, and then there are those that go round the wrong way!!!

[B.U.D.G.I.E]

However there are no advantages to a left hand orbit. Infact one unit has an SOP for a right hand orbit for pursuit situations. That just don't make sense.