NPAS News 2019
Here are the numbers for the year 2018-2019.
Things don’t appear to be getting any better. After paying the same for 2017/18 as they did for 2016/17, the majority of Forces have seen an increase in costs. The Met’s costs have increased by nearly £1.5M. Ahh, but they’re doing a lot more you might say, but their number of Actioned Calls(when an aircraft turns up “On Scene”) have reduced by nearly 25%
Some Forces have seen considerable reductions in their annual costs; eg, Avon and Somerset down £352K, Merseyside down £461K, Surrey down £595K. However, A & S had nearly half the number of Actioned Calls that they had last year.
Some though had more Calls than last year and made savings, others had more and paid more, some had less Calls and paid more.
Is it Value For Money? Well, Surrey, A & S and The City of London might not think so, paying £5734, £3736 and ££3399 per Call respectively when Dyfed Powys are only paying £888.
So, cost are up by £876K, and Actioned Calls are down by 1420 on last year. The number of flying hours by the NPAS Bases is, by some quirk, the same as last year. Obviously more transit flying getting to those less number of Calls.
Any mistakes are probably mine.
Things don’t appear to be getting any better. After paying the same for 2017/18 as they did for 2016/17, the majority of Forces have seen an increase in costs. The Met’s costs have increased by nearly £1.5M. Ahh, but they’re doing a lot more you might say, but their number of Actioned Calls(when an aircraft turns up “On Scene”) have reduced by nearly 25%
Some Forces have seen considerable reductions in their annual costs; eg, Avon and Somerset down £352K, Merseyside down £461K, Surrey down £595K. However, A & S had nearly half the number of Actioned Calls that they had last year.
Some though had more Calls than last year and made savings, others had more and paid more, some had less Calls and paid more.
Is it Value For Money? Well, Surrey, A & S and The City of London might not think so, paying £5734, £3736 and ££3399 per Call respectively when Dyfed Powys are only paying £888.
So, cost are up by £876K, and Actioned Calls are down by 1420 on last year. The number of flying hours by the NPAS Bases is, by some quirk, the same as last year. Obviously more transit flying getting to those less number of Calls.
Any mistakes are probably mine.
Last edited by MightyGem; 21st Sep 2019 at 20:07.
Avoid imitations
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Which sadly comes as no surprise to many, including myself.
Why is that Mighty Gem?
An associate has applied and not heard anything back for a couple of weeks.
He has been called for interview elsewhere in that time.
An associate has applied and not heard anything back for a couple of weeks.
He has been called for interview elsewhere in that time.
Why is that Mighty Gem?
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Civvy TFO's have a mix of experience and are remunerated accordingly. For example a brand new Police staff member would be on less than someone who has recently retired after 20 years of Air Support experience as a Police Officer.
Must be a shortage of applicants.
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co...ester-16987095
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co...ester-16987095
An interesting read in September's Police Aviation News on the debacle of NPAS and its fixed wing.
http://www.policeaviationnews.com/Ac...tember2019.pdf
http://www.policeaviationnews.com/Ac...tember2019.pdf
No punches were pulled there and a few quips later on - DEA page 17.
Did they get a full compliment of crew?
Does make me wonder if the applications closed at the beginning of Sept which crews were being kept current at ACS in Perth?
Were there already crew on the books?
Did they get a full compliment of crew?
Does make me wonder if the applications closed at the beginning of Sept which crews were being kept current at ACS in Perth?
Were there already crew on the books?
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That's certainly the way I read it. Not only have they bought aeroplanes that they have been unable to use and funded a base to keep them at they have also been paying crews to not fly them and then hiring in other aircraft to enable them to stay current. Of course I could be wrong but just reading the PAN article that is what it looks like to me.
The game plan was to hire a Chief Pilot designate when they started the project [using the former Chief FW pilot from the GMP Defender] use him to set up the aircraft purchase and then add pilots as they went on.
They then brought in a non-pilot Project Officer [ex-military] so they had a team of three [the third being a police officer TFO] to run the coal face work. By 2018 the Project Officer left the job for another within NPAS [Aviation Safety] and shortly afterwards they brought in pilot 2.
So, as far as I can gauge there were just two pilots on the books until the recent advertising.
That was preceded by a BIG rumour that both pilots had "resigned in exasperation" this summer. That was rubbish [or a trap] it seems.
I have heard nothing on how successful NPAS have been with hiring new pilots but it must be difficult to attract anyone in the current CPL holder shortage.
Meanwhile there are just two months left until the latest operational due date of January.
Its all a bit like Brexit!
They then brought in a non-pilot Project Officer [ex-military] so they had a team of three [the third being a police officer TFO] to run the coal face work. By 2018 the Project Officer left the job for another within NPAS [Aviation Safety] and shortly afterwards they brought in pilot 2.
So, as far as I can gauge there were just two pilots on the books until the recent advertising.
That was preceded by a BIG rumour that both pilots had "resigned in exasperation" this summer. That was rubbish [or a trap] it seems.
I have heard nothing on how successful NPAS have been with hiring new pilots but it must be difficult to attract anyone in the current CPL holder shortage.
Meanwhile there are just two months left until the latest operational due date of January.
Its all a bit like Brexit!
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The game plan was to hire a Chief Pilot designate when they started the project [using the former Chief FW pilot from the GMP Defender] use him to set up the aircraft purchase and then add pilots as they went on.
They then brought in a non-pilot Project Officer [ex-military] so they had a team of three [the third being a police officer TFO] to run the coal face work. By 2018 the Project Officer left the job for another within NPAS [Aviation Safety] and shortly afterwards they brought in pilot 2.
So, as far as I can gauge there were just two pilots on the books until the recent advertising.
That was preceded by a BIG rumour that both pilots had "resigned in exasperation" this summer. That was rubbish [or a trap] it seems.
I have heard nothing on how successful NPAS have been with hiring new pilots but it must be difficult to attract anyone in the current CPL holder shortage.
Meanwhile there are just two months left until the latest operational due date of January.
Its all a bit like Brexit!
They then brought in a non-pilot Project Officer [ex-military] so they had a team of three [the third being a police officer TFO] to run the coal face work. By 2018 the Project Officer left the job for another within NPAS [Aviation Safety] and shortly afterwards they brought in pilot 2.
So, as far as I can gauge there were just two pilots on the books until the recent advertising.
That was preceded by a BIG rumour that both pilots had "resigned in exasperation" this summer. That was rubbish [or a trap] it seems.
I have heard nothing on how successful NPAS have been with hiring new pilots but it must be difficult to attract anyone in the current CPL holder shortage.
Meanwhile there are just two months left until the latest operational due date of January.
Its all a bit like Brexit!
We used to have the redacted content of the quarterly minutes of the strategic Board but unfortunately we read them and I commented on them so they withdrew them from the public domain. I have tried a FOI request for the missing ones but so far that has been just acknowledged and ignored ......
On a slightly different tack I see that Babcock are to have a pilot recruitment event in Salisbury in early November.... the lack of pilots is starting to bite hard.
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Does anyone know if NPAS will be paying for their pilots IR’s? Assuming they will be bonded in if so