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Old 16th Jan 2007, 07:58
  #5 (permalink)  
bladewashout
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: UK
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Robinson offer a return to base warranty for parts, 1 year, which they honour, but you have to pay the shipping and lose the time, both of which can be considerable. It lasts a year, but in some instances dealers will let you buy add-on warranties including parts & labour for 2 years and 500+ hours.

All of this is public information before you buy, you should factor it into your calculations of how 'expensive' the helicopter is. If you buy an R22 or R44 outside the warranty period without the financial backup to handle an AD for something as expensive as a new set of blades, you are (in my opinion) taking a bit of a risk.

If Robinson had the kind of warranty some people wish for, it would have to be paid for through the purchase price and we would all end up paying more for our R22/R44 when only a small number of these issues arise (albeit expensive when they do!).

Occasionally car manufacturers have similar issues to the blade delamination, e.g. Jaguar engines a few years ago failing at 80k miles with piston liner corrosion, new engines were given up to about 6 years old, so the ideal situation can happen, but I think the margins and volume of Jaguar sales give more scope than the margins & volume of R22/R44 sales. Owners of K-series engined Freelanders & MGs whose head gaskets were popping every 30k miles got absolutely no help at all for repairs costing up to 20% of their car's purchase value. Again, you can gauge this kind of stuff when you buy the car - you're more likely to get help from BMW than Skoda, but in the long term the BMW will cost a lot more to run.

You get what you pay for, and I'm sure if you look hard enough you can find someone who will offer you an insurance deal on your blades, but it will cost a substantial amount, reflecting why Frank doesn't do it for free.

BW
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