Catalina 30 Missing Off Atlantic Coast

[Jim Cate]

Re costs of SAR: A CG pilot posted here some years ago that they had to put in a certain (fairly large) number of hours flight time each month to maintain their ratings . They much preferred to spend those hours in real SAR missions than in simulated ones... and the cost was the same to the taxpayer.

And the fixed overhead is greater than the incremental costs of operation anyhow!

Jim

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Re costs of SAR: A CG pilot posted here some years ago that they had to put in a certain (fairly large) number of hours flight time each month to maintain their ratings . They much preferred to spend those hours in real SAR missions than in simulated ones... and the cost was the same to the taxpayer.

And the fixed overhead is greater than the incremental costs of operation anyhow!

Jim

To add to this, when it comes to things like towing, sometimes getting an occasional real-world call lets them get some extra hands-on experience towing a sailboat or something they wouldn't otherwise have available to them when doing practice / training tows.

[chrisr]

almost seems that the rescuee should be charging for the training provided ??

cheers,

[Chotu]

They keep popping up with news statements.

“ "We were sailing along great for like three days. We were moving. Then that first storm hit. When that hit, that's when the problems start. The sail broke first, then the steering broke. Then after that, we just battled the sea," added Joe Ditomasso.

That set them on a downhill spiral for days, off course, no navigation, no mast, no power, no food and no water.

They survived by portioning beans and honey, and sleeping while being surrounded by waves that Joe Ditomasso describes as mountains.”

[Iron E]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Re costs of SAR: A CG pilot posted here some years ago that they had to put in a certain (fairly large) number of hours flight time each month to maintain their ratings . They much preferred to spend those hours in real SAR missions than in simulated ones... and the cost was the same to the taxpayer.

And the fixed overhead is greater than the incremental costs of operation anyhow!

Jim

I can confirm this. And while training was fun, the real experience came from doing. Practicing a Stokes lift next Wednesday at noon was considerably different than actually getting someone into the Stokes during the weather that triggered the rescue to begin with.


The actual cost of SAR is above everyone in the search's paygrade