Robinson Helicopter Complaints
My 3 year old Raven 1 with only 300 hours total time was found to have blade delaminating despite maintaining the blades to Robinson recommendations. The bond line has never been exposed as I have kept them well painted, and I have washed blades after every flight. I had to buy new blades and my helicopter was out of service for six weeks. This has been financially devastating from both a replacement cost and loss of revenue.
· FAA AD 6/17/11, pilots are required, on the day of each flight, to inspect blades to detect main rotor blade skin debond which can lead to loss of control of the helicopter
· Robinson designed and manufactured the steel blades experiencing the delaminate problem
· Delaminated blades must be replaced at owner expense at an estimated cost of $50,000; plus loss of revenue for owner operators during the 4 - 6 week replacement downtime
· Owners may only purchase replacement blades from Robinson
· Robinson no longer manufactures the design flawed steel skin blades and replaced them with their 4th generation designed aluminum blades
FAA AD 6/17/11 indicates the FAA is considering mandating the replacement of R22 and R44 rotor blades.
R44 Bladder Tank Retrofit- Service Bulletin SB-78 requires all R44 helicopters to be retrofitted with bladder tanks.
- Owners must pay for the retrofit at an estimated cost of $12,000
- Additional financial losses to commercial owner operators include the approximate 2 week downtime for the installation
- Owners can only purchase the Bladder Tank from Robinson
- Robinson will profit off the estimated 5000 owners affected by Robinson's mandated retrofit
We have power in numbers so if enough Robinson helicopter owners join our cause we can put pressure on Robinson Helicopter Company to do right by its customers and if not we will proceed with a class action lawsuit against Robinson Helicopters.
Please join us at Robinson Helicopter Design and Manufacturing Defects - Owner Complaints