Hi Non-PC
Thanks for the additional RFM extract, that would have made offering an appropriate comment rather easier for us, which is why some of us were asking where the RFM tells you to switch off the training mode, because Cat A performance does not finish at 1000ft above the heliport, it continues up to MSA where you still require OEI 50ft/min RoC.
I'm also not sure that anyone said "all flights are Cat A", I think what was said was, if you are operating Cat A then all the flight is Cat A.
I am rather surprised that AW limit it in this way, as you say, it makes it difficult to do realistic training and testing. Unless I have missed something (quite possible), the EC135, EC145 which I spend my time on, do not have any such limitation and the training mode is, I understand, used to produce the numbers for the graphs. The only difference being that the Nr at which the training mode is automatically aborted is reduced and the training mode represents a slightly sub-spec engine (5% I seem to remember) which is why the real aircraft OEI performance should be better than you see in training.
Cheers
TeeS