The CSARX contract is apparently worded such that there is no benefit for having an aircraft that is better than a stated requirement, hence the cheapest offering that meets the requirements wins (not always the best choice); so everyone except Sikorsky has pulled out. It doesn't take a massive leap to work out what has happened here especially as they already said they would now like a couple of cheap taxis instead of one aircraft that does all.
As I said before, if he wants to fly around in the (supposedly) best american aircraft, thats up to him; it's just not the best aircraft available. as for a single engine failure, the pilot I spoke to said it was a "non-event" and the passengers wouldn't even know he was dealing with it on the EH101 (or whatever model). I suspect he was trying to impress me with his steely jawed attitude, but he seemed quite convincing, I am only a humble grubber.
Bismark speaks the truth about the Canadian shambles and if you want to know about the "run dry" debacle, then look in the Rotorheads thread for that too.
FAR29 indeed.
Last edited by oldgrubber; 5th Aug 2013 at 22:06.