Mars
I take your point about the terrible accident record over the last 2 years...but maybe, just maybe, those accidents are starting to have an effect, certainly on the majors. That October 2003 accident to a PHI Bell 206L3 in bad weather did really shake them up and will continue to have ramifications.
Shell are now mandating that their twins (S76A++ and Bell 412s) are actually flown and even loaded to take into account some single engine accountability which in itself is a major step forward. Before it was just "fill em up and haul ass" operations. PHI has built or is building new rejected take off areas at some of its bases, agian, some improvement over what happened before.
My point about oil companies is valid. Chevron operates its own fleet as Part 91 and uses different standards for its own ops than it does when it flies for another customer under Part 135. Same operator using different standards in the same place.
Some of the singles do have the Apical float system which has rafts contained in the center float bag. It is inflated by the pilot by pulling on a lanyard and is attached to the aircraft until cut loose.
SASless
Correct on the frequencies, unbelievable in this day and age that 600 aircraft fly around the GoMex without really talking to each other. Although I don't want to sound like an advert for PHI
(I don't work for any of the GoMex operators) they at least have probably got the best flight following system in the GoM and also a rigid adverse weather policy applied under the guise of enhanced operational control.
Overall, if I were a Gomer, I would be using my union not to increase my pay but to improve equipement fit and to demand operational policies that better ensured a successful outcome in the event of a ditching.