PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - "Why Robinson helicopters seem to have a bad habit of crashing"
Old 14th Mar 2019, 18:10
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aa777888
 
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Originally Posted by Triple Nickel 8 Ball
If you bought it at half life for even half the value new, you're looking at spending MORE than a new one will have cost in the first place.....so I just dont get it? It seems artificially cheap to me, because it isn't at all cheap. I also dont understand how Turbine costs double? Fuel per hour is cheaper, or say, equal to....insurance is a percentage of the hull value, plus pilot experience and guesstimated utilisation and, having had quotes, is very close. The engines have higher TBO's and even if you factor the added bits and bobs that need to be changed, the hourly cost is still not double and of course, the depreciation is NEARLY non existent compared to a Robbo and you have to factor that in. My pals 98 206 B3 is worth MORE now than when he bought it a few years ago. Yes, he has lavished some cash on things he wanted (avionics mostly and some other things), but he did so knowing he wouldn't really add value....he just wanted the mod cons. If he sold it tomorrow, he would get the cash back.
All I can say is that the market on your side of the pond must be very different than on our side. I bought a half life Clipper II and got a very good deal on it. Both the seller and I knew that the blades would have to be replaced in 2020 due to the AD against -5 blades and the ship was priced accordingly. I've never heard of anyone selling a 44 and including "program" funds. The only downside to this is that you better have the cash on hand to make up for the "program" not having caught up with the age of the ship. For instance, when I have to do the blades at the end of this year I estimate I'll still be down about $20K at the rate the ship flies. But that's OK, to me I simply deferred having to spend that $20K up front when I bought the machine. In the meantime I have a "program" account that continues to accrue the monies necessary to keep the ship maintained, and after I have owned it for a complete 12 year cycle it will have caught up.

For a nice snapshot of various direct operating costs options in the USA, read Phil Greenspun's article here:

https://philip.greenspun.com/flying/bell-505/review

Now that the 505 is a little more mature, perhaps some of the 505 discussion in that article has changed, but I'm just pointing out the sort of costs that we experience here in the US.

Note that my 44 flew only 180 hours last year, but I was able to almost do as well as what Robinson claims for DOC based on 500 hours/year. My insurance amortization was higher, but my maintenance and fuel were lower, so it all evened out quite nicely. I.e. what Robinson claims here is not just marketing BS:

https://robinsonheli.com/wp-content/.../r44_2_eoc.pdf

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