Almost 8 days and no posts on this thread - must be a record!

Seriously, and trying to drag this thread back to it's main subject, when can we expect more news on the contract award?

Bueller....Bueller....Anyone....

You won't get the word until the summer i believe! Why are you waiting to send in your cv?

Not at this time. I'm just interested as I was involved with SAR for a long time.

sarh
 

well, well, well with SARH slipping over the horizon, no doubt OSD on Sea King Mk 3 & 3a will slip further to the right. Wastelands and Equipment DAs will be rubbing their hands with glee!!:D

I don't think it is slipping over the horizon, the process was accelerated by AW/Bristows pulling out as there are now only 2 bidders to choose from.

There is a rumour on another thread tha Bristows might be buying out BIH which would put them back into the SARH race!

There is a rumour on another thread tha Bristows might be buying out BIH which would
 

Interesting, but will we still end up with either a Canadian company operating American aircraft or an American company operating French aircraft?:confused:

Leopold - whichever it is, it will still be better than using the EH101 for SAR:)

Expert on the Merlin now are we Crab?

Wiretensioner

Better than using the EH101 for SAR
 

You couldn't get them anyway, the order book is full.:)

Wiretensioner - no but I listen to what people say about winching with it and those that have say it is horrendous underneath the aircraft in the downwash. Try doing a cliffsticker with that..or a surfer or any small vessel for that matter. Great for going fast and doing big boat rescues but for most of the jobs I get to do - pretty useless. Ask the Canadians about it's downwash and operating into small LSs.

Leopold - as the Danes have shown, there are still those who believe the AW sales patter:)

Leopold - as the Danes have shown, there are still those who believe the AW sales pat
 

And the Yanks, India, Saudi, Portugal, Italy, RAF, RN, Canada, Japan,etc. Not enough space to list the 139 customers unfortunately. :)
Quiet day on shift?

Crab, before your time, but comments like that were made by the Wessex fraternity when the Sea King was introduced to SAR. We still got the Sea King. At the end of the day you adjust your procedures to suit the machine and task.

Great for going fast and doing big boat rescues but for most of the jobs I get to do
 

So what you really need is a big, fast helicopter for those long-range jobs and a small, powerful helicopter for your normal "Johnny on his Li-Lo/cliff stickers/man overboard"? Mixed fleet anyone?:confused:

Can I go off on a little tangent though sort of contractual!!?

2 Q's

What are the legal or moral requirements for the equipment of coastguard aircrew when working in the offshore environment, I'm talking personnal safety equipment etc, what is required and what do those of you in the business think is required. - Note; I've said coastguard aircrew, so thats fixed and rotary wing.

Just to get you started I was told the other day that one could legally send people out in shirt and tie if they (you know who I mean) wanted to. I was also told that when it comes to risk assessments there was a limit to the amount of effort that could be expended on reducing risk, ie; 'you have to draw the line somewhere' - Should we?

Answers and thoughts please!

TT,
I'm no expert in this area, but there are actually 2 lines ...

ALARP - As Low As Reasonably Practicable

ALARA - As Low As Reasonably Acheivable

The diference between them being the amount of time, effort and money needed to reach the latter. I leave it to you to work out which the beancounters prefer to aim for.

Jesus really how unprofessional ...................well i wear a bright orange Immersion suit and obviously under garments and a ruck sack full of survival equipment in the back courteous of the company……:rolleyes:

MT, could you break that down a bit more, Survival one crewmans immersion or something else? overalls in the summer? LSJ? STASS/ / HEEDs bottle? strap cutters / knife? Woolies? gloves? And your employer will pay for this?!!:ooh:

Limpopo - not before my time at all. They used to winch at 20' in the Whirlwind I believe and we used 30' in the Wessex - now we are 50' in the Sea King - how high would you choose to operate in a 101?

If you can't hover over the casualty, how on earth are you going to effect a winch rescue? It's all very well saying adjust your procedures but there are practical limits, as I'm sure you know, to how far away you can be from the casualty and still maintain an accurate hover, especially at night.

Those I know who have been in the water under a Merlin say it is a great deal worse than a Sea King, to the point where the downwash can submerge a person in the water.

There is only so far you can go to mitigate the effects of the downwash and I believe that the EH101 is unsuitable for around 70% of UK SAR jobs for that reason.

Just to give a recent example - we rescued a kayaker with a dislocated hip in S Wales last week, he was at the bottom of a steep, wooded gorge and we winched from about 120' through trees to get him. The downwash with a few knots of wind on the nose was not sufficient to cause a hazard but a 101downwash would very likely have been breaking branches off , putting the ground party at great risk of being injured themselves. We had to be down near tree-top height for references so climbing wasn't an option.

If someone built a high-speed Wessex with up to date avionics and a radar then you would probably have the perfect UK SAR cab:) And if we don't get a mixed fleet in 2012, I will be very surprised indeed.

Leopold - apparently, British Leyland sold a great many cars - it doesn't mean they were any good though:)

Just one visit, 2 years ago, by a Merlin to our local hospital pad, (then listed in the RAF HLS Directory and used many times previously by SAR Wessex/ Seaking) ended up with the pad being deleted entirely from the directory!


......something to do with the number of claims due downwash damage, I believe.

Coastguard 139 in Devon.
 

Hi,

just wondering why the Coastguard 139 picked two surfers up in Woolacombe Bay earlier today when Chivenor is only a few miles away? Probs at Chiv I suppose.

J.