With more than 100 flighthours on Mi-8's as pilot and a/c commander on the most common operations day/night and IFR including firing unguided missiles
i think the ship is ok, but it never comes to the western standard of such a/c in this weight limits.
May be some of you guys, usually flying lighter ships are impressed, but the ship must be compared with Super Pumas or other really big helicopters.
The avionics are on a level 1970 including AP, 1500 h for a full job TBO is crazy, the engine reaction time is the lowest i have ever seen on turbine helicopters. There is a sentence " For gods sake don't pull the collective more than 1° per second!!!". The oil and fuel consumption is adventurous. The cabin is cluttered, more than 90 switches and circuit breakers.
The ship is cheap, it's cheap built, completely without modern material. The hydraulics have only one tank. In case of a single hydraulic failure it's better to land immediately before you run out of hydraulic fluid. The ship is old, constructed in the sixties and due to the changes in Russia and the world and the market with thousends of Mi-8's, design changes in the last 20 years are marginal.
The market is overflooded with thousends of ships, with and without papers, ex- mil and civ ships. Nobody knows from which sources the older ships come, bogus parts, overtimed "refreshed" parts, nobody have control. For a few bucks you can have anything on the papers in russia you need.
Lets swarm Whirly about their times in Russia, about the few bucks (R-22 price) she paid proud for "Twins". Nobody knows if her flighttimes now even could be found in the a/c books. May be it was only a little private business by some guys on a desolate airfield. The new and old owners have only one intention, making some dollars in this "eastern pioneer times".
But this is not the problem of the ships. It's the market.
Who thinks the ship is to operate with 1050 USD per hour is mad. Thats only the price for the 3 man crew, the 2-3 mechanics and the needed fuel. Wow, I forgot the price for a eraser to bring new hours to the ship
The absolutely best part on this ship is the perfect kerosene heater, making the ships cabin on OAT -30° in a few minutes hot like hell - on the ground without running engines!
