Originally Posted by
Dick Smith
John. It was a AW139 pilot who told me that the aircraft are fitted with so much equipment that they often winch when an engine failure would not allow the aircraft to stay in the air.
Very surprised to hear that, Dick, considering the outstanding OEI capability of the AW139. ISTR that it can hover on one up to a mid-summer temp at MAUW.
Back to your OP, as I mentioned the loss of a donk isn't the only consideration for assessment of whether to winch or not, and many have contributed examples already. But any Australian winch approved operator will have these criteria enshrined in their ops manual and if a pilot isn't following them then it comes back to either operational necessity or poor decision making skills.
Times have changed, and what we used to do isn't what is currently acceptable in many cases.