Originally Posted by
Robbiee
What did he lie about?
While there are no outright factual lies stated in the article, the writing and article structure is subtly rigged against the Cabri as a helicopter. I'll try to avoid wading too deeply into the G2 vs. R22 debate here, and rather just point out issues with PM's article.
He opens with saying that he has no "petty vendetta" against the Cabri, rather
"my questions stem from an interest in aviation safety". If this were truly the case, he shouldn't have spent about half a page listing in unnecessary detail the repetitive crash-after-crash theme. The same point could have been raised with "of these 30 crashes, an overwhelming trend is loss of directional control, often attributed or related to pilot unfamiliarity with Fenestron control". Spending more than half of the article talking about repetitive crashes relating to the fenestron, then subtly inserting the sentence
"Guimbal has altered a few things on the helicopter - warning lights and so forth - but pilots keep having the same accident" subconsciously rigs an unsuspecting reader to think the Cabri's
design is flawed and that Guimbal should change it but are sitting idle, not caring about the safety of their helicopter.
As a journalist (it was tempting to put air quotations around Journalist but taking cheap shots isn't worth it), his decision to make crashes the core element of an article named
"We need to talk about the Cabri" isn't accidental. The entire article reads more along the lines of "look at all these Cabri crashes I can list off - meanwhile, look at how safe the R22 is".
Read the article with a decent eye for deceiving writing and it's clear to see he never intended to use the article for a positive or constructive purpose - rather he was given a platform to share his own personal views (albeit in a subtle way) and that he did, while dressing it up as an article for aviation safety.
*If you disagree with me, remember this is the internet and you can always ignore my point of view.