This is a great thread, as it makes us think. Why I weighed in is very simple: Today especially there exists a certain kind of distrust of some of the fundamentals of our existence, think born out of the intellectual freedom the web excites (a very good and powerful thing!)
This thinking that goes something like this:
"Those idiots who make XXX (insert a term like: vaccines, evolution textbooks, public laws, medical procedures, missions to the moon, reports on assassinations, flight manual procedures, investigations of 911 acts. ......) are all YYY (insert a term like: too stupid, on the take, drunk with power, ......) and I know because ZZZ (insert term like: I saw a youtube video, my cousin's Aunt's brother told me, a great web site proves otherwise, Glenn Beck told me,....).
The thing that makes me laugh is that within 100 meters of my desk are world class experts who have spent 20 years of so studying, designing, building and testing helicopter stuff. They (like their peers in France, Russia, Texas, Philadelphia, and Yeovil) have become very expert in ways that operators cannot fathom, any more than they can appreciate what a night rig approach is like.
When I read of a person who basically says "that page in the operating limits section of the flight manual is just bull****, do it this way and you will be so happy you will pee your pants!" I react.
Ppruners, do what you will, but while you do, please respect the flight manual, and those who wrote it. Trust them, they know so much more than you can fathom about the machine, because it is their job. That is not an arrogant statement, it is a simple fact. It take nothing away from your expertise, it is a simple statement of how we are a team, and that we rely on each other to stay safe and productive.