Jim,
Thank you for your reply.
I appreciate the legislation is not overly precise which is why I wished to avoid any discussion as to whether the AS355 F or N, in anybody's opinion, fulfilled the criteria or not. This is a separate discussion and one which will hopefully take place in early September between Eurocopter and EASA. In any case it is the responsibility of the TC holder to fight this particular battle, EASA will discuss but not debate it with me!
My point is that these aircraft have been operating with CAT A equivalence for years now, yet suddenly there is no tangible, documentary proof that they have CAT A equivalence. Due to the time gap (1980's), nobody seems to have any original documentation, from any of the major European Aviation Authorities, which supports this claim. The Flight Manual certainly has the required tables and instructions, there are also various Service Bulletins (26-01, 65-03), Service Letter (1779-00-06) and documents from Eurocopter which confirm this is the case, but nothing from the DGAC or anybody else which confirms this proposition.
I am currently trying to encourage Eurocopter and EASA to accept to work backwards from the recently agreed CAT A equivalence for the NP and show that the F and the N, with their retro fit SB's, are equivalent to the NP. Rather than to start from square one with proving all the individual requirements.
In parallel, I am trying to find a copy of any relevant original document, which would be very helpful, as nobody seems to have one!! (They are all hidden in archives) Armed with a copy, I might be able to convince EASA to update the TCDS without further ado. We can all hope for miracles I suppose.
Biz-Buz