Um... Lifting,
The fact that you can couple the AW139 in various modes below Vmini has nothing to do with the fact that you can't go IMC/IFR below 50KIAS/Vmini.
Absolutely. But RW&B, I think perhaps I failed to make my point. I actually had one though I grant it was difficult for even an alert reader to find it. I was really saying rather the opposite from what you drew from it.
In post #536, chopjock discusses using the FD modes to do a towering takeoff, which can't be done without failing to conform. No disagreement here.
Perhaps it would have been better to not "conform" and do the towering take off using the coupled functions of the autopilot at his discretion instead.
That is where my post was directed, more toward an aircraft limitation than a regulatory one. While I do not know how the incident aircraft was equipped, I would imagine that none of its FD modes could be engaged
below 60KIAS, which is
above Vmini. Pretty clearly I handed you the wrong end of the stick I was thinking about without meaning to. Sorry about that.
Normally, in the AW139, a towering takeoff is considered complete (depending upon one's company operating manuals) when established at a Vtoss of 50KIAS in an accelerating climb toward Vy, normally above 200'.
Most company operations manuals require a Cat A Runway takeoff for IMC, the profile for which is designed to allow the aircraft to achieve 50KIAS at a low altitude while still remaining visual. It is common for FD modes to be engaged around Vy, which is 80KIAS. This altitude / airspeed profile is generally not suitable for off airport locations where obstacle clearance can't be guaranteed. I don't have my Supplement 12 right here handy, so I can't confirm the profile in the RFM, but I recall it being identical.