HC,
Talk about circles...lordy man...you talk circles within your own post. You moan about the 92 maybe getting a cracked Gearbox or not being within a 30 minute flight of a landing spot....etc....then try to ignore the fact that any helicopter that has that failure will be in the exact same pickle. Or....did I not read all of that correctly?
I own no Flying S stock, draw no compensation from them, Nick and I worked at the same location but for different employers....but did wear the same funny looking officer rank one time thus are bonded as brothers....but for the life of me....your logic is lost on me.
Pardon me...I am just a dumbass old, operative word is old, helicopter pilot, but where is the destination you wish to take us here?
Bell 212's have a main drive shaft that if failed for some reason...ditches with no run-dry time. A Tiger with a tail rotor driveshaft failure will do the same thing. Single point failures exist for every helicopter....sling a blade for crying out loud.
What is your beef about the 92 and what transpired with Norsk? The aircraft suffered a "loss of pressure", an existing emergency drill was carried out, no one got hurt, no damage done. Post incident inspections determined a potential problem in that system that needs to be addressed. I am sure Igor's Foundry and Iron mongering will sort it out pronto. What is the problem?
Might I carry you back to the engineering mindset that pods engines right next to one another? That seems to be a particularly common European and British practice which American manufacturers have gotten away from on the whole. As you well know....one turbine engine pukes its innerds out the front.....and the other one sucks it in and becomes ill itself.
It is common enough that one North Sea operator following a dual engine failure from ice ingestion.....required two or three inflight restart drills in the Sim as part of their recurrent training. That practice led to yet another problem a crew had a simple engine failure but incorrectly diagnosed the problem...reverted to a dual engine failure drill....and tried to re-start the really failed engine which gave them a huge electrical emergency to cope with. They subsequently got an engine running and landed the aircraft safely failing to cancel their Mayday Call.
That was on a Super Puma....your favorite aircraft.
How does that square with your argument?