Originally Posted by
SASless
FH,
Fortunately I never flew in the Gulf of Mexico's extreme weather....instead got to fly in the tranquil and balmy North Sea.
Although I did fly the Jet Box in the Mountains of Iran which could also get a bit of wind and turbulence.
The question is why did PHI have the monopoly on that particular bit of wisdom....never heard of it anywhere else?
Did ERA or any of the other GOM companies do that Start Button thing?
Not a monopoly, just an STC. And I don't know if any of the other GOM operators implemented PHI's STC for the relocation of the starter button. The reason PHI did was more for straight-line winds than gusts or turbulence which, fortunately are not common over water. Our max-wind limit was 40 knots, and there were plenty of times I started up in...(ahem)...39.5 knots. You do what you gotta do when it's late and you have to get back home and you're on a small platform on which you cannot spend the night. And depending on the particular structure, it's not always 40 knots horizontally. SAS, when you flew in the North Sea I'm pretty sure it wasn't in a 206 with a teetering rotor. I came to PHI with quite a lot of 206 time. I initially thought the placement of the starter button was...weird. But once I got out in the field and had to shut down offshore, I saw the wisdom of it.
BTW, moving the starter button allowed that hole on the collective box to be filled with the Float-Arm switch. The Float-Inflation switch then moved from under the collective to the cyclic, allowing you to pop the floats without removing a hand from the controls. Pretty clever dudes, those PHI guys.