UK SAR Running Thin?
Joined: Mar 2026
Aviation Qualifications: ATPL(H)
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
From: Manchester
The only sad thing on here is you Crab. You’re starting to sound like a bitter old man who’s missed his afternoon nap. Best to move on, enjoy retirement, conserve the heart rate, and be quietly proud that the very people you trained are out there delivering an exceptional SAR service.
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 18
Likes: 2
From: Hong Kong
The only sad thing on here is you Crab. You’re starting to sound like a bitter old man who’s missed his afternoon nap. Best to move on, enjoy retirement, conserve the heart rate, and be quietly proud that the very people you trained are out there delivering an exceptional SAR service.
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 1,556
Likes: 56
From: Inverness-shire, Ross-shire
The folks at the sharp end are starting to suffer for their dedication but they continue make the service work. Meanwhile middle management, the stock-market parasites at the top, and the customer, all pursue weird ill thought out agendas. When Chapter 11 Take 2 inevitably arrives, things will not be on as sound a footing as Take 1.
Joined: Mar 2026
Aviation Qualifications: ATP+Mil
Posts: 2
Likes: 2
From: England
The only sad thing on here is you Crab. You’re starting to sound like a bitter old man who’s missed his afternoon nap. Best to move on, enjoy retirement, conserve the heart rate, and be quietly proud that the very people you trained are out there delivering an exceptional SAR service.
UKSAR was exceptional! Great aircraft, great people and a world beating service on land and at sea. What is happening now i have no doubt will develop into a public disgrace. 1G was service first. I don't think service even features in the priorities of 2G. Front line crews are aghast with what is happening. Bases off state for weeks at a time. Crew handover taking place in pub car parks. A lot of crew red lining off their duty limits, all while management keep asking folk to look down the back of the couch for more ‘efficiency’.
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 1,556
Likes: 56
From: Inverness-shire, Ross-shire
In Crabs defence and to agree with other respondents, he called what is happening years ago! Just a contract out.
UKSAR was exceptional! Great aircraft, great people and a world beating service on land and at sea. What is happening now i have no doubt will develop into a public disgrace. 1G was service first. I don't think service even features in the priorities of 2G. Front line crews are aghast with what is happening. Bases off state for weeks at a time. Crew handover taking place in pub car parks. A lot of crew red lining off their duty limits, all while management keep asking folk to look down the back of the couch for more ‘efficiency’.
UKSAR was exceptional! Great aircraft, great people and a world beating service on land and at sea. What is happening now i have no doubt will develop into a public disgrace. 1G was service first. I don't think service even features in the priorities of 2G. Front line crews are aghast with what is happening. Bases off state for weeks at a time. Crew handover taking place in pub car parks. A lot of crew red lining off their duty limits, all while management keep asking folk to look down the back of the couch for more ‘efficiency’.
It is unhelpful that, at the customer, people who learned a huge amount about how to do this in the decade leading up to the first unified contract have either retired or left the department. Add to that the financial principles that the UKSAR2G contract process was based upon are now forgotten or ignored. Switched now to the austerity mind-set that is used across the world to destroy economies and shorten lives. Empire building ambitions are expressed about becoming the "government flying service" when the specialist resources they have contracted for are not remotely adequate for that ambition.
Meanwhile, at the contractor's parent company, we see signs of the same behaviours that we saw in 2018/19 prior to the bankruptcy reorganisation. That appears to be just normal operating procedure for American public companies. The quarterlies, the quarterlies! Oh sh1t, did we overspend on activities to drive up share price? No worries. Our ill-gotten gains are in the bank, so let's 'fess up and go Chapter 11.
In 2019, one of the things that was stable throughout that process and guaranteed to bring a fat cheque every month was the UKSAR Helicopter Service. Can't do that if you're not meeting availability targets and the customer is ripping apart the variables. Oops.
[Can someone who has a good grasp of rotorcraft leasing and ownership patterns PM me please?]
