Ongoing Rotorway Issue
I did some research into the viability of owning a Rotorway and came up with one worrying issue time and time again. The main rotor is driven through a sequence of belts and pulleys. The final pully is mounted on what's called the secondry shaft. Earlier RW's had a 30mm secondry shaft and they were breaking at an alarming rate resulting in complete loss of power to the rotorhead. RW upgraded the shaft to 35mm but there are still grave concerns about it's reliability (they have broken). there are also aftermarket alternatives to try and cure the problem but non are CAA approved for use on UK registered machines. Also, a lot of pilots have an issue with the belt driven tail rotor but they seem to work.
It has to be said that the RW is a very pretty machine, aethetically knocking spots off the R22. There was a review in both Pilot and Flyer magazines a year or so ago.