Nick
First of all, I approve of your big beastie - I don't fly it operationally, but I have flown it and I have sung it's praises before. But on the subject of EGPWS I have to disagree. Those who reject the current generation of EGPWS for helicopters that spend most of their working life in an offshore environment are not necessarily "willling to ignore better systems until the perfect system is arrived at". Instead, they acknowledge the reality that day-to-day (even more importantly, night-to night) in my back-yard anyway, EGPWS is a backward step (at least until I can select what I want to hear and when, and until it does not degrade the warning systems I already have). AND we all know that it is NOT "works-in-progress" for us - no matter how much progress the equipment designers and manufacturers make, once the kit is fitted to my machine, that's it - my boss will not spend money to upgrade to a better standard unless our customers (or legislators) tell him to.
Bottom line - right now I don't want it, and if I could disable it for every night and IMC flight offshore, I would.
Zeb.