The only non Bell product we operate is a 480B, and here are a few experiences we've had with the thing just recently,
- The thing had a defective starter from the factory which vibrated so bad it broke the starter mount and the FCU mount, fortunately the FCU didn't fall off in flight, Enstrom knows and has decided to ignore the problem.
- Just recenty the bearing inside the pulley overheated, damaging the bearing and the pulley, technicians all agree that its due to a bad design of the pulley.
- The thing just vibrates like crazy the cyclic wobbles all over the place and when this happens its difficult to work on it.
- It is very difficult to find training for this aircraft, Enstrom sent an IP to give recurrent training to us and he chopped one of the fins off, and Enstrom didn't even send an apology note, just like nothing happened.
I have never seen a helicopter require so much maintenance, I really wish the owners would just get rid of it.