I have flown on R-22 150 flight hours. Not so much to be an "robbo" expert, but enough to made my own picture of the helicopter. Compared to the other (10) different types of helicopters i'am rated, it's not the "easycopter". And i would like to say from flight handling, concentration to flight controls and to hold anything inside "green" it's a very demanding, challenging helo.
In my opinion only from the view out of the flightcharacteristics and not costs, it's not the starting helicopter for our new pilots. The "green" range is very small and the possibilities to recover safe conditions are limited. May be that on the other side pilots, who are able to fly that thing safe, are really helicopter qualified. But loosing good guys under the known circumstances is allways very sadly. Robinson have made some design changes, improvements and awareness courses, but mostly after deadly accidents and under the pressure of insurances, authorities, pilots and owners. I' was able to meet Mr. Robinson after an deadly accident. Two of my longyear friends, professional pilots died in an R-44 crash. Same time to the funeral was the official date. What causes the crash was at the time absolutely unclear. Authority wished to ground all the robbos in country up to new informations but Mr.Robinson and his lawyer was able to make to much pressure. "My helicopters are safe under all conditions and if accidents happens, it's a pilots problem". Shure it's a pilot problem if he is not in line with the flight manual. But it's easy to write in a flight manual avoid this and avoid that... . If you are a line dancer 30 ft above the ground, simple! hold your center of gravity above the line! If you are injured on the ground - have you read the manual? It's a dancer problem... Simple hold the center...
We couldn't solve the robbo question but we can discuss and talk about. But TC and t ain't leave the guns at home.