Two weeks before the first EC225 inadvetent ditching at the ETAP I also had a close call with the sea. This prompted me to explore develop and eventually produce the Offshore Night Stabilised Approach concept. Whilst I am not claiming complete responsibility for the procedures its merits stand alone.
During my research I found evidence worldwide of 27 inadvertent CFIT into the water. It is not a new problem. One of them led to the mandating of RADALTS and Aural Warnings in Offshore Helicopters (Can you believe they were not fitted before).
Automation done correctly is the single most improvement in safety during over water operations. Note my use of the word "Correctly".
Education, Training and Regular practice is the key.
Train Hard - Fight Easy. Why would you not fly the same procedue in good weather as you would in bad. One procedure. One set of data. One concept. One mindset. One outcome.
The exception surely must be the degraded mode. This is the one we should be training in the SIM (for EC225 this is SEMA - not uncoupled mode - CAA please take note), backed up of course during aircraft training and checks.
The current offshore night stabilised approach procedures are a step forward.......BUT.......corrupted by the confusion created by Operator's who insist in beginning the approach at a fixed height above the water in defference to the variable hieght of the target helideck.
It should be a fixed height above the helideck. This way the trigonometry involved for the individual type is consistent for each and every approach. The data gathered by the brain is consistant which leads to much greater flightpath deviation detection when finally established in the descent beyond the HDP. One procedure. One set of data. One concept. One mindset. One outcome.
Discipline is the word that springs to my mind when I am flying offshore. If pilots still want to fly manually, at night, or worse, in IMC, with PAX behind them, then I suggest they start looking elsewhere for their paypacket because that is not what the passengers want, deserve or should be subjected to. WHY - because it is far less safe than flying 4-axis coupled PROVIDED the Pilot fully and completely understands his autopilot, display system and intergration with any associated engine power management system.
One final point. Automation in fixed wing FBW aeroplanes means the Pilots hands are never physically connected to the flight controls. To be clear, this is never the case in an EC Offshore model. Whatever the AP is doing we can always place are hands on the controls and directly manouver the flight surfaces. We do not suffer the same phenomenom as our FW Brethren.
DB