TC and Tec Pilot:
Thanks to both of you for your comments.
It would be pointless of me to argue that an exposed tail rotor is as safe as a notar or fenestron when clearly it can never be. My point was merely that there are plus and minus points to each design and generally speaking the incident rate with exposed tail rotor is so low as for it not to be a significant issue.
Also please dont get me wrong I am not trying to put down either the 135 or 902, I think they are both very capable machines and again have their good and bad points.
I guess the overall message is that any helicopter is a compromise, the question is have Agusta chosen the right compromises in the right key performance area's to make this new version a challenger in the utility role.
Tec Pilot: Your experience seems to be very specifically of mountain region operation and thus I assume your comments are well founded and well made.
TC: Just two points of clarification, the co-pilot seat in the 109 is reversible for HEMS ops so the front and back are not cut off per say and also the current 109E and this 'S' are classed as new generation helos.
Interesting discussion as always!!