Hi Mad Jock..you are most welcome to join here.I had actually discussed this with airline pilots from various airlines and what you say is true..Squeeze the available power and get some altitude before reacting to the fire. In fact most of the multi crew offshore flying CRM is tailored towards airline sort of flying. Gone are the days when the pilot's quick decision and actions are always correct. I have to go back to bush flying to enjoy that again!
Nowadays our machines are fitted with HOMS and whatever we do right from control movements to things that we don't know are recorded. The reason I put this thread up is in case the people drinking hot coffee while looking at the HOMS and doing post incident investigations point out.."Oh ...he reacted so fast and he was barely 350 ft when he pulled the eng back. Now what does our policy say?" !!!