Jack,
Shawn is absolutely correct - as an FAA policy letter explained some time ago. It is only advisory material for Part 27 helicopters
We may not like it (and in Europe at present it is alleviated) but that is a fact. It is alleviated for offshore operations and when taking off over water by FAR 91.9(d).
It has never been fully explained to me exactly how the take-off gradient -published in the AC 150/5390-2C - of 8:1 can be flown (other than in PC1) whilst staying outside the HV diagram. Double standards come to mind.
I have been reluctant to comment about this accident because performance and power management was so comprehensively flawed. At the very least, HOGE power should have been available.
From a distant memory, the reduction in TBO for the availability of 140-2 power limits are contained within the maintenance manual.
There should have been no doubt in anyone's mind that these were operations with exposure to an engine-failure (the probability of such being widely known); what perhaps the US Forestry Service didn't know was that, without HOGE being available, exposure was possible even with two engines operating.
The take-off power limits are quite clearly stated in the RFM - that these were exceeded routinely came as quite a shock to those of us who did not expect this in commercial operations.
Jim
Last edited by JimL; 6th February 2013 at 13:39.