i used to work for abitibi helicopters in calgary and they have taken delivery of at least a couple of the new FX stc'd astars from heli-lynx of ontario. they seem to be very happy with them, however i did not get a chance to work with one. i did fly one with the 600 series engine in it for 1 hr of recurrent training and it seemed nice enough.
having said that, i do have some time in their older BA+'s (the 600 series giving performance levels between the BA and the B2) which abitibi operates and i much preferred the governing of the ariel powered machines. the response to changes in power demands was much more crisp with the turbomeca's. the LTS seemed to wallow or overspeed (not excessively, though). this is when doing production longline work so the collective is up and down constantly. the new ones are supposed to be much better.
as far as maintenance, they are apparently much cheaper to o/haul; the o/haul can be done in house (i believe). cycle limits are much higher on the 101's, fuel burn is better, and parts are cheaper. this is not to mention a supposedly dramatic increase in high density alt. performance over the B2 with the 700 series.
it seems like a no brainer but i still like flying the B2 but then i don't have to fork out the $$ to repair or maintain.
Last edited by Fun Police; 6th June 2007 at 22:49.
Reason: spelling