UK SAR Running Thin?
 

What’s going on with UK SAR over the last few weeks? I’ve seen the CAE aircraft up in Scotland and Irish Sea on OPs. Stornoway across in Tayside. An Irish SAR aircraft in South Wales - they are all over the place. I’ve never known them to be tasked so far from home. I mean, fantastic that cross cover exists but are they running lean? Serviceability issues? Something to do with the transition to 2G? Or maybe nothing at all and they are all just really busy.

S92s getting a bit 'tired'. Better get some Merlins out of storage (or even Pumas).
The present problems in Kent don't help (Lydd not accepting SAR aircraft) but Riveroak have, I understand, agreed to let them use Manston; can't say 're-open' 'cos there is already a heli operation there.

Most S-92 will be gone at the end of the year since only three are required for this contract. Heavy, expensive, noise/vibration issues, out of production, never to be upgraded, difficult spares supply, and its size not required for the vast majority of jobs, mean that for this data evidenced new contract it is of limited use.

The Sheikh was happy to push a million pounds a year into keeping Lydd going but his sons are not so keen and having recruited an experience airport MD, the whole scenario there has changed.

Well put. Saying it without saying it.

Yes, people are really starting to notice. Anyone bite?

Have they re-invented the East Coast shuffle that we had in the RAF when we had serviceability issues? We used to spend quite a time moving 3As between Wattisham and Chivenor. Happy days:)

It's a good job they selected an aircraft with good availability and spares supply chain.......

Appears that the new MD’s expertise does not extend to updating their website which still shows an SAR presence and 24 hour airport availability!

:D Well spotted, that ppruner! You have to admire the ambition of the last gone-and-NDA'd management team. They wanted the latest aircraft and equipment. It is a pity that the whole world wanted the same stuff at the same time. Also a pity that their successors are struggling with the aftermath. The availability numbers will have been hitting the monthly standing charges. The variables will have been under excessive pressure from the customer for some time. :rolleyes:

This is a new website. Looks like the new airport manager is selling Lydd still as a SAR base and government services, drones etc. All they’ve done is drive them all out though. Either very poor management or there’s a plan to drive the airport into liquidation and develop imo.

Develop what? The subsoil gravel and is unstable and wouldn't pass muster for housing.

Is Prestwick back on State yet?

Golf Papa was flown back up from Lee-on-Solent on 19th February and was doing SAR jobs that evening. :ok:
It is operating with c/s 199 which indicates that it is not upgraded to the UKSAR2G spec.

============================================================ ====================

- Two upgraded aircraft now at Inverness, c/s 851.
- One old spec aircraft at Prestwick
- Another two upgraded AW189 required for Oban and Carlisle by the end of this month
- Lydd already changed to 2G-spec AW139 and moving to Manston
- Lee-on-Solent back on AW139
- St Athans back on AW139
- Caernarfon has AW139 on work-up for the service's most notable changeover at the end of this month
- Another two upgraded AW189 required for Sumburgh and Stornoway later in the year

In 1998, the National Audit Office noted that with MoD-DASA and the Coastguard publishing incompatible reports and statistics about SAR helicopters, the UK government had no way of knowing what the scale and nature of the SAR helicopter task was. := In 2001, this was mentioned in a Coastguard commissioned report, but nothing had been done. :ugh: In the 2006 update, again, nothing. :{ Now it was getting scary because they were issuing a contract notice for the 25 year PFI and still couldn't define the task ably. (Was inappropriate bidder recruitment really the only reason that collapsed? :E) In the panic of 2011 to get something workable in place, the DfT conceived the 10 base solution and two different aircraft types distributed around the country, and that was operational in 2015. It worked but wasn't perfect. In 2020, the contract process for UKSAR2G included the online modelling tool for bidders that allowed them to use the real data from the first unified contract to create a made-to-measure regime for the new one.

In 2022, BHL were awarded the contract on the basis of the first proper dataset for the UK SAR helicopter task since the matter was raised TWENTY FOUR YEARS earlier. :ugh:

When Rescue 848 is dragged out of the hangar at Stornoway on 1st January 2027, it will be the final component of a fleet that took over TWENTY EIGHT YEARS to properly define and implement. :ugh:

Gimme fkn strength. :rolleyes:

GP still at Prestwick as 199.
GX still at Inverness as 851 (and been very active).

GT moved from Inverness to Oban as yesterday evening as 853.

So stuff is happening. (Unless you're at Carlisle.)

Still four aircraft short of the what was in the original 2G plan for the end of this month. And GP is not 2G spec.

Oh for the days of locally based WW10 and Wessex….there were more aircraft around back then.

It’s gone the same way as Police Support. Too thinly stretched since NPAS.

But we knew that, didn’t we…

Bristow are involved in SAR, what did you expect?

I do sometimes contemplate "the good old days" :rolleyes: and certain provisions that are now a far off memory, but then I remember the Fastnet 79 farce, death of Harry Lawrie in 87, Billy Deacon, FV Aquila, Mark Phillips on the BenN 2013, and realise that it's never been plain sailing. :)


"CONSTANT ENDEAVOUR" :ok:

Bristow Group have posted on Facebook that Oban (AW189, c/s 853) and Caernarfon (AW139, c/s 336) are "operational". The original plan was 1st April so that seems strange considering the late status of nearly everything else.

No, it's never been plain sailing but back then we weren't trying to make a profit..........military leaders trying to climb the greasy pole made plenty of errors but Bristow don't have that excuse

Funny you say that crab, its currently your name sake former colleagues who are hollowing out the UKSAR service. Same people, different pole.

The previous masters did what was required to maintain the service. Now it’s the accountants decision. A really sad state of affairs. Oban may have gone live on day one but at the sacrifice of Inverness. Lets see how the Southern bases get on over the coming months with service delivery…

Not a surprise that the same ones who were happy to pass on crap decisions and policies from MoD without question are the same ones happy to do the bean counters bidding - rather sad really.

When you question such policies you usually get told 'You just don't understand the bigger picture' instead of them admitting the policies are flawed and destructive, pursued in the quest for 'efficiencies'

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.

Perhaps I also missed my afternoon nap. However I don't recall anyone anyone criticising those delivering any SAR service. Only those hindering it.

Exactly.

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.

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’.

Yes.

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?]