cappy67

So figure this - from a recent Ottawa Citizen Article (bias or no??) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Marcello Cianciaruso, Alenia North America's search and rescue project director, said the company toured all four air force search and rescue bases in October 2003 with its C-27J Spartan. "We've done two demo tours. We stopped on the bases of search and rescue. We went to Trenton, Winnipeg, Comox, Greenwood," said Mr. Cianciaruso. Defence Department spokesman Jay Milano confirmed the air force did not have anything to do with last week's C-295 tour. "We're not doing anything with the company," Mr. Milano said. "We're still developing the requirements. ... This company, they can do whatever they want, and they are." But Mr. Milano denied the military allowed any of the C-295's competitors access to its airbases. "It would be inappropriate for any of these companies, and us, to engage in any type of activity such as that," said Mr. Milano. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ note the conspicuous absence of any DND folks at any stops of the CASA tour - www.c-295.ca - click on the tour button to access the itinerary which also contains reports from each stop.

Re. STOL - fair enough... as a northerner, I was being a tad selfish. With respect to the specifications and procurement, I'm afraid I know only too well about how government purchases work. The problem, like many procurements, is that the specs are set to favour a specific bidder from the outset. In this case, DND sets a speed requirement based on current basing formulas. However, and it's a larger issue granted, the notion of speed becomes, quite frankly, irrelevant, if the government had the guts to consider actually basing planes in the north itself.

short take-off and landing is less important as it relates to Search and Rescue given that the role of the fixed-wing aircraft in a SAR capacity is to locate and then drop people and supplies to the rescue site until helicopters or ground support can be mobilized... certainly manoeverability is a big thing, landing not so much, and the CASA folks seem to be demonstrating that... I notice from their site that they've started a tour of Northern Canada... (if nothing else some good pics)... but their reports say that they're showcasing some valley flying and low flying techniques to the local SAR groups... www.c-295.ca

I've been reading a lot lately about the next big defence procurement coming down the pipe - Fixed-Wing Search and Rescue... and am seeing the same thing happening here as with helicopters and subs. Will the feds be able to fend off the "biggest, fastest, strongest" mentality of the defence department and think logically, sensibly and creatively about what the best option is for Canadians. I've found sites representing the two major contenders: EADS CASA (www.c-295.ca) and Alenia (www.c27j.ca). Clearly, both aircraft have their advantages. But I think the CASA site has a well thought out approach that needs to be considered. What do you think?