Hi Gang,
I just wanted to touch on PPHELI's question: Are pistons any more reliable now than 30 years ago?
Tim Tucker covered this while I was in robbie School the second week of Feburary.
Yes, but perhaps not for the reasons you might think. Only speaking for the 22, it is more reliable because of the derating of power. The engine is never stressed (hehehe ... right. In sofla, hot, two people .....
) as it might be.
As Tim put it, early on they took engines from planes and still ran them like they were in planes, asking for the same power, with not as efficient cooling, etc (due to how one cools a heli recip ...)
Hope that helps.
As for single vs. twin, I'm up for either. It is a culture difference UK vs USA, here in the US we'll accept singles over the city to begin with.
But as others have said, really depends on the situation, as having the second engine is not automatically a lifesaver in all situations, you may still have to set down somewhere.
On that note, sometime back I recall a thread on single engine pilots transitioning to twins, and having issues, specifically the single engine mentality, knowing when one can use that other engine, or just entering autorotation for the emergency, anyway it was something along those lines ....