Originally Posted by
SASless
Sultan noted the Accident Report did not discuss the Engine PCL's being on the Overhead Panel being a detriment as compared to the Collective mounted Throttles on Bell Helicopters.
Sultan may not be aware of how the T-700 is controlled and governed in the Seahawks and Blackhawks, so I'll be happy to attribute that to Sultan's usual Bell Bias.
I've flown twist grip throttles on TH-57 and Hueys, the center console mounted ECL's in SH-2F's (which can be inadvertently bumped out of the "fly" position, don't ask me how I know that), and the Sikorsky overhead PCL (also used on the CH-53E, can't speak from memory as regards the S-61 / Sea King but I suspect they do also) .
They are fit for purpose.
Also, as you noted:
As it is now....they are moved to the Flight position not touched until Shutdown of an Engine or Engines.
This is from old memory...
If you have an inflight engine malfunction, you often move the malfunctioning engine's PCL out of fly and either take it to idle, shut it off, or retard it so that it's about 10% below the good one. (Depends on the problem, see your local NATOPS manual for details).
The ECU Lockout feature allows the crew to bypass the electrical control of the engine governor while retaining the load demand spindle / HMU based governing to keep the Nr in pretty close limits (though you will usually see a little bit of lag in getting back to 100% Nr if you make a lot of power changes).