Originally Posted by HeliComparator
Coalface
Funny how BIH, Scotia and Bond all manage to operate quite happily with only a limited icing clearance.
We all used to operate quite happily without AVAD until there were a couple of accidents involving aircraft inadvertantly hitting the water. We all used to operate the 332L without intake heating mats until the Bristow double engine failure due to engine icing. We all used to operate quite happily with basic analogue SAS systems with no height hold. Need I go on? It is people like you who hold back equipment improvements because of your "lets just make do" attitude.
As for the "carefully flight tested time periods" - what a load of crap. The Flight manual limitations may have been "carefully flight tested" (or more likely given the minimum flight testing required by the French to get the certification) but the "operational rules" were negotiated with the CAA over the desk between the gang of three Flight Ops managers and the CAA Flight Ops inspectorate. As I said before, there is no way these operational rules would pass JAR or EASA scutiny if being negotiated today.
Stop trying to hold us back in the 1970's.