A practical example of the advantage of RIPS............
Last night, S-92 from Stornoway picked up casualty on the west coast of Scotland and transferred said casualty to Inverness. Conditions en-route required an IFR transit above safety altitude in icing conditions. The aircraft spent a total of about an hour and a half in cloud and precipitation at about -2 deg, 135kts airspeed with no ill effects. The RIPS ice accretion meter indicated light to moderate icing throughout. Embedded CB's were avoided by use of the very helpful
forward facing radar.
Had this been an S-61 the casualty would have had to go the long way round, low level via the north coast at 110 kts.
A similar trip was done earlier in the week, this time to collect a casualty from Elgin and transport to Aberdeen. I would love to say the job was given to Stornoway because of superior capabilities and in a sense it was - Lossiemouth were off state. Again.
The icing clearance of the S-92 is not perfect but it's a massive step forward.