Mmmmm ...
Well my point of view is the the TL function IS the airframe protection (ie it protects the transmission input sections) for normal operations.
Let me first declare that I grew up with the SA330J Puma and am quite happy on a big(ish) machine to fly Nr decay if necessary and fly a machine away in that condition if the need arises (we also used/needed to milk RPM on B47 G3B2s on occasions just to keep the suckers flying ... that of course was in a previous life!).
Having said that .... the necessity for this of course depends on the task at hand for any given situation ... you might not want TL "ON" for a particular task and that would be the pilots perogative.
I and my collegues fly the 139 in a disciplined Offshore envoironment and there are there a few of us with similar Puma backgrounds we are very happy to keep using the TL.
As quoted above ... it does NOT restrict your power demands during OEI flight as the TL feature is then inhibited.
Also .... it was illuminating ... during my type training (which was done by a person with Test Pilot qualifications) when we raised questions about what could and could not be done by pilots vis a vis "reading between the lines" of flight manuals (due to RFM vagueness) .... his comment was ... that a lot of limitations in RFMs are in fact due to the "developmental test program" not fully investigating the envelope and just coming up with "artificially" low limits just so as to be able to publish a RFM for Certification and get the aircraft in the air and in use! Very often done with newish aircraft ...
This of course does not mean we can expand the flight envelope with our own (un-approved) test program!!!!
Cheers
