RE: the R-22
I don’t know if I’m the guy you’re asking for What-ho, but for these five minutes until someone more qualified responds, I’ll tell you what I think.
I’m not going to bore you with my full CV only the relevants: I did my initial training in the r-22 in the eighties, gave 2,500 or so hours of instruction in them and then moved on through a dozen or so other types.
I think the r-22 is a fine machine. Can it be a dangerous machine? Yes, without question. The things I learned how to do in an r-22 have helped me on every flight in every other aircraft I have ever flown. It demands a delicate touch that translates perfectly into Instrument flying as well as high altitude and precision long-line. The R-22 teaches you things about power and rpm management that a turbine-trained pilot may never know. I never operated it outside its envelope.
When I taught in the r-22, we used the Robinson curriculum which required us to demonstrate and teach the low-g recovery technique. R-22 instructors performed the low-g maneuver thousands and thousands of times without incident, to the benefit of the students they were training. Today I believe the maneuver can only be verbally discussed. I think that was a knee jerk reaction by the FAA to the University study, believing they had to respond.
After reading the study, by Georgia Tech I believe, I noticed one commonality on many of the flights. Regardless of the experience of the PIC, you’ll notice that the person in the other seat was taking a demo flight.......or was going for his first helicopter ride with his friend........or words to the effect that the person at the controls may have been flying for the first time.
My opinion is that the person flying made large, sudden and unexpected control movements that exceeded the PIC’s ability to correct. I believe the aircraft attitude was way beyond normal or even aggressive maneuvers and even beyond what we experienced in the low-g recovery technique, closer to acrobatic. The R-22 is extremely controllable and as a result, very unstable. The rotor system will do exactly what you command it to do, and will do it immediately. I think it produced attitude changes or more correctly rates of attitude changes that even the experienced PICs hadn’t seen before. I think that it would be possible to cut off your own tail or even the left side of the fuselage while accidently entering the low-g regime and then responding with large and incorrect responses. Read the report, see what you think. Anyway, it’s just my opinion.