OMR
No, definately not writing a book, and not taking anybodies advice as accepted International standard. This forum lends itself to learning more, as there is a vast amount of experience out there.
I am merely fishing for information to take, evaluate and to assimilate, then to use the best from everyone for my own use to improve on my own knowledge and skill, within or as close to company regulations as possible.
As for flying over MAUW, I don't go there! We work on Class 2 and OGE figures for take off, depending on location and with the temperature of the moment, we then calculate what we can lift. The OEW, fuel and manifest weights are added to together to determine TOW and then compared with take off data. Weight then gets adjusted or reduced to stay within allowable TOW parameters. This gets done before every leg on every flight. So there is never a doubt or any guess work involved what our actual TOW is or what figure will give us Class 2 take off performance or OGE performance. I am sure most pilots work on that basis in the offshore industry.
I have been very fortunate to have flown with pilots of various nationalities that have flown in the North Sea, GOM, Nigeria and Middle East, Australia and South Africa and have learnt from each and every one of them! Wasn't all good, some of it was kept as experience on how not to do it.
As SASless said there are differences in the same company. I have seen the flat approaches, the dive off the decks, the steep, steep approaches and have prayed many times! As said in the post Red Wine was refering to:"Flying and helicopter flying per say on and off decks/rigs/ships/mud barges/airfields are not black and white and every situation merits it's own tecnique.
I thoroughly believe that the day you think, as a pilot, that you know everything about helicopter aviation, it's best to step down before your attitude kills yourself, or worse some innocent passenger, who is relying on your skill and knowledge as a professional to get him to his destination safely. He is usually just a worker, a pawn in the system, like you and me and not usually directly involved in management with hidden agendas, short term planning and incentive bonusses.
Unfortunately safety margins do get "adjusted" to make up for profit. Maybe the Sikorsky S92's will be the answer to all this, with it's Cat A performance, with full fuel and full pax, and go capabilities.
But will the companies pay that kind of money, cut into their profits for their workers safety sake?
I would still like to hear the pro's and cons on approach profiles though, anybody willing to stick their necks out?
