JimL
I take your point vis a vis the established emergency protocols and would not seek to replace them but merely to give them a context. As experience with a new type grows we know that a greater understanding of the machine and its foibles will follow. I have learnt to be sceptical about text book failures and I think it is a healthy scepticism but ignoring the RFM would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Will read your paper as soon as I get a quiet moment.
G
PS - I don't suppose you have an electronic copy of the HARP Report only I wanted to refresh my memory on the paragraph that highlighted the fact that gearboxes were a severe weakpoint of the (then) current designs - just before the authorities went on to certify the Boeing 234 which had 5 gearboxes in a drive train in which the failure of any one would have resulted in the total loss of the aircraft - which happened - killed 40+ people and resulted in the only time people-power has casused the withdrawal of a machine from offshore use....... in UK anyway. Makes you wonder about joined-up regulation doesn't it.