There is a lot of tricky legal speak going on and in some cases the RFM’s do not help the cause. As we all know, lawyers these days will have an input in the design and construction of procedures and manuals, so that in the event of something going wrong the blame can be mitigated.
The solution from the operators side lies squarely in the training departments and thorough, detailed, standardized techniques to as far as possible alleviate the risks during a night departure. I would not say VMini is a red herring, but TDP during the departure is the more relevant and the setup immediately after TDP as well as performance characteristics at any given departure. The move toward P2E is step in the right direction, and should effectively remove exposure time. Therefore as long as one is visual at TDP, which is a height reference over the deck, the key is to accurately achieve the correct attitude at this point. This needs to be a “climbing, accelerative attitude”. The single biggest flaw in technique I witness during night takeoffs is when pilots are too dynamic with the nose forward attitude, resulting in degrees of over-controlling and often in purely accelerative attitude with little or no climb initially and quite often a descent. The lack of aerodynamic understanding and especially with reference to the non-linear properties of drag effects, has, IMO led to a belief that it is important to slavishly attain speed as an ultimate priority during departure. In so doing one has a greater power demand during the higher pitch forward attitude and further increase in the possibility of disorientation and further over controlling. Trying to get pilots to understand the value of smooth control inputs during departure is the greatest challenge.
Assuming one has visual references (rig/deck) up until TDP and P2E, at TDP one has to “smoothly" set the climb/accel attitude with minimum additional control input, toward VTOSS/VY. Up to TDP (height) any failure has the required visual references to ensure a rejected takeoff. With P2E ensured there should in theory be no requirement for visual references as a water landing is not a calculated performance risk in the event of power loss. Yes we all know an engine failure is not he only failure, however during a departure it is the greatest risk of a resultant ditching from a purely technical standpoint. Therefore immediately after TDP pilots must already be in the correct flight attitude to maintain the climb and acceleration toward Vmini/VToss.
Perhaps its is wording of certain RFM’s that should be adjusted, but I am also of the opinion that during a dynamic phase of flight such as departure, the time spent below VMini is at an absolute minimum and the aircraft, at the time of IMC is set up in a configuration to achieve this in a very short space of time and hence in the case of an ITO should not be interpreted as prohibitive assuming correct techniques are in use.