Rotorbee,
Yours was a long post that raised many issues and addressed them in a professional manner. I agree with most every thing you said as based upon my many Years of flying helicopters in quite a few different countries and for sure just about every kind of terrain and climate.
As a result I have had the pleasure of dealing with several different authorities to include the FAA and CAA....along with some lesser know nations's aviation authorities.
As humans in order for us to have effective communication we must have commonality of definition. Without that there is no way for us to understand what the other person is saying. Same goes for technical speak such as we use in Aviation.
I would like to respond to a few things you brought up in your post.
The question is, what do we do now, since the "SWP" is now a contaminated acronym/term.
Rely less upon buzzwords and acronyms....be specific when you discuss those concepts. Accurately describe with clear language what you are trying to communicate.
Whenever I had this discussion, SWP was not used correctly, only that it is what we in Europe call VRS. Nothing to do with overpitching or running out of power.
So who was wrong there? Those who used SWP to differentiate from VRS or those who were not describing two different situations?
The FAA is not a bunch of morons or amateurs
None are amateurs....all are paid government employees....but some are in fact Morons....or Jobsworths as Crab would know them.
The truth about the FAA is Airplane people tend to move up in management faster than do Helicopter people, all FAR's have evolved from an Airplane Only environment, and the FAA does not have the best technical or engineering cadre compared to the aviation industry at large.
Yes...there are some very good people doing the Inspector jobs....but we have seen gross incompetence in some as well just as one should expect from a large government bureaucracy.
I had three CAA folks treat me very well and used their discretion to mend problems....yet we find many here that care not for the CAA.
a Swiss pilot mocked US pilots in a newspaper recently for their training
Lord....if I had a Tuppence for every time I have heard my fellow American Pilots bashed by another naitionality.....I would be living in Monaco on a fine yacht todayl
Arrogance can be found anywhere.
Just because it is in the newspaper does not make it true.
I found an article (an lost it, if I find it again I will post it, I promise) that talked about the difference in helicopter accidents between Europe and the US.
In the past there was some here suggesting the vaunted CAA system of training and standards provided a better safety record than did the FAA system.
Alas, we found there to be no real clear difference....except for the cost of doing business with the CAA as compared to the FAA
That is the real difference between the two...one is User supported and the other is supported by the General Population with a much wider population to pay the bill.
That the FAA is not always right is also obvious (neither is any other national CAA).
That is a very true statement but the question that should be asked is what are the problems are and why they exist.
There you have it. It isn't any better here.
Perhaps that might rub off on a lot of people....and we just accept that the one thing that is certainly true....it is different there....as compared to here (no matter where here and there are).
Final thought....if everyone agrees....usually someone is not thinking. A concern for consensus rather than fact is not a good thing.