Coalface
Funny how BIH, Scotia and Bond all manage to operate quite happily with only a limited icing clearance. I think what you are forgetting is that any de-iced helicopter has to show that it can cope with a failure of the de-icing system, which is a simplex system, and can continue to fly whilst recovering to positive air temps / flying out of icing conditions.
What you refer to as get-around-the-rules procedures are in fact carefully flight tested time periods that you are allowed to fly in icing conditions without the immediate escape route of descending to warm air - 5 minutes for the 332L I seem to remember. The flight testing was of course done during the full de-icing trials and something similar will/should have been done on the 92 and these periods are specified in the approved flight manual supplement for flight in limited icing.
Of course this only works when you are flying over a relatively warm sea with airfields within 5 mins flying time of the coast, but fortunately that is the environment we fly in, and that is why deicing is not asked for or paid for by the oil companies.
Nick, you do rant on so....You either have a very short memory or you are deliberately lying, because even you finally agreed on a previous thread that the 225 has the same certification standard for bird strikes and for turbine burst protection as the 92. And it was pointed out to you that there were only a very few reversions from the FAR29 version that the 92 is certified to - those were to do with having the fuel under the cabin floor. So when you say "hundreds of safety features grandfathered out" you lose all credibility with those that know anything about it. I would give up on the 92 and stick with the new plank job if I were you....
Night Watchman
I agree that full de-icing is far more relevant to Scottish SAR as you will be flying onshore. Fuel dump, whilst less important than on the 61 due to the much better OEI OGE hover performance, is still a useful asset for a SAR machine - I wonder whether it has been specified?
After an earlier post by me on the inferiority of the L2's cabin size for SAR over the S61, I am now told by that lot down the back that its no problem once you get used to it and the guys coming from the 61 onto the L2 find the other benefits (autohover / AMC that actually works properly from the back) outweighs the size disadvantage. That's after the operation to cut off their legs below the knee of course
HC