TC
You don't work for the Scottish Executive do you as they are quite happy to trot out rubbish as fact. Though they normally use 1 in 4 rather than most.
Crab - I love it, especially with the rig drivers, most (certainly not all) who dream of breaking away from SOP's just for 5 minutes. And when no -one is looking, to actually fly the helicopter for real.
That sentence hardly deserves a reply but I will bite. Responsible NS pilots don't dream of breaking away from SOPs - all we do is get the offshore workers to and from the rigs, in all weathers, as safely as we can. Then go home and look at our bank balance
If you are the sort of pilot who likes to do more than that then there are ways and means. I for instance take ATC Cadets on aerobatic flights (fixed wing
) at the weekend, others glide.
I also don't think that HC has ever said that SOPs are cast in stone - of course they get revised as more information is discovered about our operations. However, most are pretty robust as they have been distilled from experience. When technical issues, aside from flight profile issues, come to light - as per the 225 gear shaft then Checklists/SOPs are modified fairly quickly.
HF