ppng - you have not understood the complexity of aircraft contrating.
I was refering to renewal of the Shell fleet by placing contracts with operators using new aircraft like the EC225. It is not possible to confidently place a contract on an operator to operate a new aircraft until the aircraft type is certified, delivered and added to their AOC.
Often you need to plan 14-18 months in advance to get an aircraft off the production line.
When putting in place new contracts Shell Aircraft policy is also to then wait for the fleet leader to reach, IIRC, 750hrs and the fleet around 1500hrs before they start on Shell contracts so that any major airwothiness problems can be identified, to allow personnel to build experience to meets Shell's minimum experience levels on the type and to demonstrate general offshore operational suitability.
However Shell, as
the leaders in offshore safety, did have to pressure the OEMs to produce the right procedures for PC2e. It is sad that the oEMs failed to progress this quickly enougth. Hopefully the EC175 will have PC2e out of the box.
Now those procedures are available, Shell operations can be conducted to PC1 (or PC2e when PC1 is not possible), addressing a remedial action from the 7/7=1 safety case!
Yet again Shell Aircraft's efforts in raising safety by eliminating the hazard of deck or water impact after and engine failiure need to be applauded. In particular such RW1D deviations from the intended safe flight path are the number one risk in offshore operations.
It is just this sort of Shell Aircraft initiative, plus the adoption of safety cases and SMS and all the other 7/7=1 actions, that are moving helicopter safety towards the levels of safety that can be achieved on regular fixed wing passenger flights.
You can read more here - which includes a safety case:
http://www.ogp.org.uk/events/06/11-M...s-Aviation.pdf
or here which shows how Shell lead the way:
http://info.ogp.org.uk/tpes/Programm...TermSafety.pdf
Sox6 - the UK CAA have rather lost the plot on offshore safety leadership. Its mainly down to turnover in personnel it seems.