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Old 14th February 2005 | 00:18
  #26 (permalink)  
Flingwing207
 
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 515
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From: Denver, CO and the GOM
Personally I would like to see an injection equipped R22. It would then continue to be the world beating aircraft it has been for the past 25 years. The rotary world would be poorer without it as costs for training will soar.
Actually, for operators who fly their aircraft a lot, at 2200 hours, the 300CBi and the R22 are pretty much even in total cost per hour, and at 4400 hours the 300CBi is cheaper. The only way to make the R22 noticably cheaper to fly is to use Pathfinder insurance, and with that, you get what you pay for (i.e. it's great insurance until you actually USE it).

The mandatory overhaul is much more expensive than the quoted cost - you lose the use of the aircraft for up to three months, you may have to ship it across the country, and there is almost always things needing to be done which aren't included in the "list price".

There's no question that the R22 introduced the concept of (relatively) low-cost helicopter flight and flight training. However, Schweizer has more than caught up. Frank Robinson is glad indeed that they build 'em slowly in Elmira, because I suspect you'll see CBi's replacing a lot of timed-out R22's.
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