If you take the wording of SIN 2600-S-00 there are several times when a two hour flight time is related to a MOD45 alarm. It suggests “the crew will therefore be informed of the propagation of any cracks, and will have 2 hours to proceed with a normal landing…”
It then goes on to say that “The flight manual requires the helicopter to land as soon as possible, without exceeding 2 hours”.
We also know the thresholds vary from aircraft to aircraft – hence the need for a learned threshold and an absolute limit.
If the MOD45 alarm could – for whatever reason –signal a failure that is beyond that already understood by recent events and since the grounding operators have managed to continue to provide service and a “proper” fix is due in 1 year. It therefore seems a huge gamble with the Eurocopter brand, for operators, crew and passengers to push on, MOD45 alarming for 2 hours??
Whilst it is very clear EC understand events in order to continue to flying they are making a huge assumption with the MOD45 alarm – especially since all the other measures would suggest if an EC225 has a MOD45 alarm now its likely NOT to be linked to current issues.
Oddly its even less clear where this pressure is coming from because if you take Bristow at their word they don’t see flights resuming even in the interim state until the end of the year.
Last edited by Pittsextra; 11th Jul 2013 at 15:31.