Art of flight

Good article from Decembers PAN Sid, Looks like the control room was built for an era when there was much more crime, or at least to the perceived required manning levels! Seems lately more reality is setting in as to what NPAS can afford, and the end result the forces get.

Brilliant Stuff

They should know where the aircraft are since they are being tracked.....hence the odd call, why did you go that way???

volrider

Is there any truth in the fact that NPAS are having to go hand in cap to the Govt as they are £8 million in the red despite budget cuts, this no doubt will lead to more cutbacks of airframes and bases?
I heard also that WMP who had a budget of around £1.7 million when they owned and operated their aircraft are now paying £2.4 million for the same hours ( when they can get aircover!) for a service and they own nothing!!
Now thats a deal....you can hear the salesman..." yes sir we will take your car off you and instead of paying £170 a month running costs we will give you one to rent for £240 a month, however we can't promise you can have it when you need it as someone might need the shopping fetching in Taunton"

Ummm the WMP negotiator of that deal should be down the job shop......
Of course if all the above is true

SilsoeSid

If you set up a business in order to save £x million in a given period, yet end up -£y million at the end of that period, does that actually mean that you have failed by a total of £y+x million for that period?

Art of flight

Reading the PANews article and others related to it from NPAS spokesman, it occurred to me that a very important and fundamental fact had been lost in the implementation of the control of aircraft tasking.

The report refers to the borderless trial conducted by the east anglian consortium or Cambs, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk (and Kent) that was designed to prove that NPAS was the way forward. The trial was actually a one month version (2 1/2 aircraft), followed a year later by a 3 month version (3 1/2 ac). Unfortunately the 3 month trial was blighted by the loss of one aircraft worth of duty time because of servicing and unserviceability.

The first trial was simple in that one TFO was acting as 'control' at one base, covering requests from 3 forces, this required no extra staff or management. the aircraft would respond on a common talkgroup to requests from any of the 3 forces, often agreeing between aircraft things such as remaining endurance, closest to the job factoring in wind etc. The controlling TFO listened to the talkgroup and acted as the hub of the whole operation and referee. A very simple method of control allowing flexibility, expert opinion, and very fast response, such as " police 13 don't lift for that we're just finished here and will be there in 10 minutes and you're 15 minutes away". True borderless tasking.

The second trial expanded the area to 5 forces and included Kent (no aircraft) setting up a sub control room (with TFO supervision at the start)
Each force was required to provide tasking to the control room via email/fax/telephone, the control room them emailed/telephoned/radio'd a unit to task an aircraft. Lines were drawn on a map to decide on 50/50 situations rather than county boundaries. The trial highlighted difficulties with comms and the fact that the busy counties could very quickly suck the whole effort into one corner of the 5 county area. The deployment of aircraft required the crew to land at the nearest ASU base after the task to save transit time ( a sort of Russian Roulette of were's the next task coming from), so very quickly aircraft ended up 'out of position', unable to perform post task admin until returning to home base at the end of the shift. The implementation of PAS not only removed aircraft from service, it removed crucial bases with fuel, thereby negating the proven principle of saving on transit time and fuel/flight servicing time (aircraft hours). The method of control has lost the flexible principle of the first trial and I suggest the confidence of the police officers at large. Most NPAS aircraft in regions that have lost aircraft and bases now have a bigger 'transit to on job flying hours ratio', and to make it worse, have to go all the way back to home base to get fuel before being ready for further tasking

SilsoeSid

My record so far is a request to attend a job 170 miles away!

Art of flight

I certainly couldn't better that, but have been asked to take people from east anglia to Newcastle.
Sunday nights were 'fun' once two units folded, Kent never had an aircraft and the other counties machine off for servicing. 8000+ sq miles with one aircraft and 2 places for fuel......the next task seemed always to be further than the fuel state would allow without going back to base for fuel first. Lots of hours, and few results.....lots of fending off of negative comments from the control rooms when told it would be more than an hour before we could get back to base refuel and get to their job. Just to throw in a another spanner, how many units 'allow' rotors running refuels?

volrider

Seems like its all working wonderfully much better than before when everyone was independent..... The bosses will say as they scurry around protecting their own @rses

MightyGem

Not necessarily. The GPS radio often has to turned off/on so the the control room can get a position.

Brilliant Stuff

Mighty Gem yupp there is always that problem...

Digital flight deck

Are the NPAS accounts going to be published at the end of the financial year, or indeed were they published after 1 year of operating in October. If so where?

Ivor E Tower

If they do get published you might find them in the "fiction" section of Waterstones or even the "fantasy" section.

MightyGem

Things don't seem to be getting any better. One of the North West units was offline more than it was online over the past couple of weeks, due to a pilot and Observers being off sick. No relief pilot available and OT not being authorised for the Observers.

MightyGem

NPAS's Statement Of Accounts for 2012-2013 can be found here, starting on Page 89.
http://www.westyorkshire.police.uk/s..._13_300913.pdf

I'll leave it to someone with a bigger brain than mine to figure out what they mean.

Digital flight deck

Any accountants out there that can decipher the accounts?

SilsoeSid

I can now see why they needed to come up with the post of Creative Director
George Whitbread was selected for the post, anyone know of him?

SilsoeSid

Having uploaded all my training records, checks and qualification paperwork to GCAP, after being told the system is going all digital and that the electronic office was now here, why was I wrong in shredding all the paperwork after uploading it?

SilsoeSid

Google; 'NPAS Freedom of Information'
http://www.cambs.police.uk/about/foi...B0224-2013.pdf

http://www.cambs-police.co.uk/about/...B0227-2013.pdf

jayteeto

So, if you are in a car in Cambridge and don't fancy stopping, its worth a pop at trying to get away. You are probably never going to get a helicopter on the case unless you are really unlucky.
Average response times are statistician porn; if you have a couple of incidents where the helicopter is in the vicinity, the couple of 45 minute responses get covered up..........

Art of flight

I think the case of Cambridgeshire highlights the problem that many counties without an ASU base experience these days. They're far enough away that a proportion of jobs that used to get a response, don't get off the starting blocks as experience has shown that due to the longer transit time, the chances of a result have diminished. It has become a self fullfilling prophecy.

Add that to the fact that a proportion of calls for attendance will find the nearest aircraft already on task in its 'own county' and with insufficient fuel to divert to Cambridgeshire and have time to do the job properly without going back to the nearest ASU for fuel first, and you have a second class service compared to what was there before.
Not having a go at NPAS here.....Cambs were struggling to afford the cost of a stand alone ASU before NPAS and like Norfolk, may have folded anyway.