ShyT
I don't recall saying it was dangerous
. I flew the Whirly 10 and seem to remember we had to wear parachutes above 8000ft 'cos if it caught fire the magalloy would be all burnt out before you could auto to the ground. We had to fly over the water to do the job and tragically people were killed when the engine stopped - eg Cyprus
RC
After 40yrs of flying I seem to have worked out what airmanship is
My point is that there was no reason to fly outwith auto distance of the land if the engine had stopped they would have been in the water - they may have had lifejackets, dinghies and PLB's but the a/c didn't have floats and getting out of a rapidly sinking possibly inverting helicopter is not easy - the dunker shows you that.
So good airmanship would influence you to fly over or within Auto distance of the land if at all practical. Obviously if you are crossing, for instance, the channel this isn't possible but all suitable precautions to mitigate the risk should be taken ie use good airmanship.
HF
(sorry for a bit of thread drift
)