Helicoparator, No I am not a training captain in Aberdeen but was a line training captain on Dauphins before for PDG. I do understand your point about the difficulty in getting non rev. helidecks however if all the companies agree to it the oil company would have no choice especially in light of this accident. I would have thought right now was a perfect opportunity for training captains to push through new procedures. I also wonder as suggested that more frequent sim approaches and go arounds could count towards recency.
Just to clarify my point about 50/50 handling and automation. I totally agree when the weather is sh**y use what every automation you have got however when practicing practice both, I really believe if you do both your monitoring when the weather is bad is much better and will help if things go wrong. If I was flying a modern 737 to a beautifully lit runway I would use automatics all the time however, I feel the offshore world requires a high level of competance in both areas.
The other option if a better level of recency is not possible due to cost or difficulty would be do not fly at night especially as it accounts for such a small amount of flight or have specific crews that do as it would be easier to keep a smaller number of people current.