vertalop asked - "I note that many of the reversions are to FAR 29, Amendment 24, which I believe was the certification basis for the S92, although some are older."
Nick sez - Nope, the S-92 is to amendment 47 (May 2001), which is the most current regulation, with NO grandfathering or exceptions. That link I provided was to allow you to find the sheets for all FAA aircraft, including S-92. Here is the specific S-92 TCDS link (note that this sheet is a bit out of date, the cert basis was extended to amendment 47 in June, as the baggage was increased to 1000 lbs) The sheet shows amendment 45:
http://www.airweb.faa.gov/Regulatory...E/R00024BO.pdf
The amendment 24 that the EC 225 grandfathers for most of its passenger safety features is the
December 1984 regulation
vertalop asked "Out of interest, is this what you were expecting when you made your original post?....Or do you feel that statement was perhaps a little exaggerated in hindsight?"
Nick sez: Good question, it is exactly what I suspected, but not what the French or (RotorComparitor) said. The extensive grandfathering of the safety, crashworthiness and fuel system integrity is understandable, as they could not redesign these sections to meet the current requirements without redesigning the entire machine. Note the phrase in the middle near section III "2. Description: large twin-engine helicopter designed as a derivative product of the former type certified model AS 332 L2" This is the exact grandfather clause.
It would be a good exercise to look up the specific paragraphs to see what the shortfalls are. Here is the "historical FAR" which lists each paragraph and each amendment so you can read them and compare:
http://www.airweb.faa.gov/Regulatory...e?OpenFrameSet Just click on the left margin by historical FAR, by part and select Part 29 to see the history of each paragraph.