Geoffers;
Nothing should ever preclude airmanship, and most of us will at some time have stepped outside the ECL, RFM and Ops Manual to solve a situation. Where problems arise in our horrendously litigeous age is when we act outside those guidelines and get it wrong.
With the threat of the lawyers it is a brave Chief Pilot who puts an SOP in his manual that lawyers could get their teeth into in the event of an incident. Coupled with EASA "dumbing down" manuals we now have a situation where lots of good ideas aren't covered by AMC's and while the manual is "compliant" with the AMC's you can't get into trouble.
I have a current question about the fire drills on one type on our fleet. the RFM says that after firing the first bottle during engine fire drills you should wait 10 seconds and fire the second. EVERY other type I have ever flown goes for 30 seconds between bottles to give them time to work and to see if they have worked. I would dearly like to re-write that part of the check-list, but daren't and the OEM can't give me a reason why the RFM was written the way it is.
The same aircraft requires AL48, despite the fact that the engines/filters/fuel lines don't. The AL48 requirement was for an earlier mark but was left in the RFM during a number of up-grades. We now have to use AL48 when the RFM says so, with all the attendant hassle, because not using it could raise questions about our operational standards in the event of an incident.
The AMC's state that the aircraft should be flown with the auto-pilot (if fitted) coupled at all times. I have noticed a degradation of manual flying skills as a result and advocate hand flying as often as possible when there are no pax on board, because we still have to hand fly an approach for LPC/OPC/IRR.
Sadly I think our current system was written with little practical understanding of rotary ops, and despite the best efforts of some very good people at Gatwick in fighting our corner, very little care on the behalf of the faceless EASA mandarins.
Just my rather frustrated 3d worth.
SND