Originally Posted by
hoistop
Also, consider that pilots need much more training and experience for this than doing it with a hoist. If Switzerland will "sell" their national (FOCA) requirements for fixed rope HEC to EASA, it will be practically impossible to train a pilot for fixed rope HEC without considerable previous experience with external cargo operations.
Personally I think that you should have considerable previous experience with external cargo ops before you are even considered to be able to fly Humans on the end of a line. We wouldn't even consider letting anyone try HEC without at least 1000hrs of longline experience. Thats 1000 hrs of actual throwing a rope around time, not the ferry to and from the job, or counting the hours sitting on the ground with the engine running thinking about lifting something....
But then thats just me, and i'm happy to go on the end of a line that any of our HEC pilots are in control of, and its all single engine!