Crab

Re Industrial action. A deathly silence covers that subject, didn't partisipate anyway.
Spr

Hilarious Consortium Name
 

[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']Thought it would be fun to mix up the discussion a bit and discuss one of the consortium names. Has anyone noticed the ironic trademark name? This is purely in good fun not malice![/FONT]

[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']Soteria. While in the simplest interpretation it’s the latin translation of the greek word for salvation or "to save" which on the surface seems appropriate for the mission. If you break it down etymologically though, you find that Sot = stupid or drunk to the point of stupidity. and eria being an organism, disorder or disease. So, one could say that Soteria is a painfully progressive stupidity disease, or that they’re a bunch of drunk SAR crews and businessfolk. Either way I’m sure you brilliantly-witted British rotorheads will come up with some funny repartee on this theme.[/FONT]
[FONT='Arial','sans-serif'][/FONT]
[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']Further digging in Wikipedia reveals that Soteria is also a center for holistic mental illness treatment. No matter how you slice it, I believe that thorough trademark research wasn't conducted for this business name. It's just too easy a target :D Thoughts, volleys, parrys?[/FONT]

Parries, surely?

Sorry, but your intelligent linguistic/semantic questions made it irresistible.

What do you make of US101 (HH-71) for CSAR-X?

I would have thought the biggest threat to the HH-71 is the spiralling costs of the VH-71 program.

That aside, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if C-SARX didn’t feature in the 2010 US Defense Budget.

Pavehawk - I think Soteria's problems lie in two 3-letter areas at the moment - CHC and RBS :)

Some still around the SAR world remember this as the best SAR cab.......

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i9...2009_00000.jpg

Kind of defeats the purpose of PFI doesn't it? The now majority state-owned RBS part of Soteria (who I'd assume were the financial backers for the bid). Might as well keep military SAR as it is, get some new helicopters on COMR and sign a partnership agreement with a company to maintain the things once in service.

Bertie Thruster - not the best example of the whirlwinds performance as, a few seconds after that photo was taken, the helicopter suffered an engine failure and ditched off the back of the boat. It was a demonstration to the press off Thorney Island in 1955 to mark the the re-formation of 22 Sqn in the helicopter role. Fortunately happened as the helicopter was moving back in to pick up a 'volunteer' reporter strapped into a stretcher.

Parries!
 

Jacknicko, :O Touche! You caught me. In my zeal to be humorous, I forgot my audience and the Queen's English..

CSAR-X
 

Jacknicko & Hilife

While the VH-71 may present some challenges for CSAR-X I believe that the vendor has sufficiently distanced themselves from that program to avoid collateral risk. The bigger issue as Hilife pointed out is the 2010 budget. If OSD decides that each service must sacrifice one or two big programs to fund the perennial war on terror, then it'll be up to each service Chief of Staff to prioritize and defend his key programs. Gen Schwartz has twice now said in public that he would cancel some other program before his top two priorities (tanker and CSAR-X) so time will tell. We pray CSAR-X doesn't get cancelled because our Hawks are dying on the vine from overuse.

Soteria's problems?
 

Crab,

I apologize for not being "up to speed" as a new member of this thread. What do you mean by "Soteria's problems"? I wasn't aware that they had any with all the good press about MCA Shetland and Sumburgh rescues; barring of course the publisized one where the S-61s had to come in and perform. It seemed that they were doing well. Do tell..

USAFPAVEHAWK - it was a dig at a consortium who are bankrolled by RBS (who should have been allowed to go under) and use the management skills of CHC (trying to change terms and conditions of crews without negotiation, introduced a SAR aircraft into service that wasn't fit for the job - accepted by an offshore pilot with no SAR experience I gather - and employ a guy who was universally hated when he in the RAF and who seems to be doing a similar job in civvystreet).

Apart from that Soteria are doing fine, after all they have the lovely Nicky working for them;)

From another thread:

and:


It is still very early days but there surely will be an impact of this on the UK SAR S92 operators now and not good timing for the soteria bid.

SW

SW

Whilst noting your comment on the fallout from this tragic incident, there have been three Puma accidents (two over water) already this year with two of them also resulting in fatalities, so not a good start to the year for either platform.

2009 has not been kind to the rotary industry, so hoping the outlook will improve.

Don't think this yera sbeen tolo kind at all to anyone really - unless you paddle the Hudson.

Tell us about Nicky Crab, I could do with some entertainment!!! . . . . . .shes not a he is she!!!?:\

Definately not! Only met her twice and definately a her.

Yes, she has a couple of outstanding features...........................her eyes of course;)

I'm still completely clueless about this Nicky!!!?

Q. If Pave had a choice would he trade in his 60 for a 53?

I don't know if you guys would consider the Pavehawk a "high disk loaded" helo. But, I have found that when dealing with a raft, a higher hover (around 70ft) alleviates the raft flipping phenomenon. If I was doing this purely visual, it'd be very hard, but with INS referrenced hover cues, it's pretty easy and if you through in a hover coupler, it's a complete non-event.

Not so busdriver since the INS hover cues and a hover coupler will not keep you over a raft which is subject to wind, waves and downwash. All you need are reasonable visual cues and a good winch op's patter.:)