I thought I wrote my comments in English, but after reading Rot8ors reply I'm not so sure.
I seem to remember aiming my reply at the robotic state of North Sea flying. I agree there is nothing magic about it, but it does need the crews to be on top of it all the time because the support structure is not the best.
Ops Manuals vary in quality from poor to very good, (this is from my own experience), and if they were followed to the letter there would be more incidents. The manual is the minimum standard required, not the maximum and pilots discretion plays a part. The problem arises when the "customer is king" mentality overides logic.
Did we not read every second report in Winbasis sent from Sumburgh was regarding the unreliabilty of the TAFS. I always hope for a bad TAF, then I can have a decent fuel load, the problems occure with a good TAF but bad weather. Not an unusual occurance! Oodles of fuel! I wish,
My experience is no different I'm sure to many of my vintage, it has been gained operating in all corners of the world from below sea level to 19000 ft. The North Sea is just another theatre of operation, but it has a bigger bite than many other of the jobs I've been involved with and my own skill is sometimes not enough, I need help and often this help is lacking.