It's a Bell 412EP that's customized to our requirements.
I haven't had a chance to check the flight manual, but I'm certain that routine hover operation is implicit in the specs since that much power is required to meet specified performance.
When above 40KIAS we don't use this limit. However it is required for almost all of our hovering work. I never liked the argument that 1 sec below 81% resets your 5 minute clock. I go into forward flight, giving about 4-6 minutes at ~60% between periods of hovering that require the higher setting.
Busy at work this week, but if I find anything more on this I'll post it.
Matthew.