Hughsey, they certainly are. Those 60's machines are mil spec and you can't get better than that.
But hardly anybody in the private world these days can afford mil spec. General aviation spec is bad enough.
After all, you and I don't pay the premium for an armoured Hummer to drive the kids to work.
If there were no robbies, there wouldn't be much of a GA helicopter scene at all.
The bar is set very high for FAA type certification these days. The R22 would never ever make it. The R66 did. I've never even seen one but have yet to hear a bad thing about it from anybody who has flown it. It is troubling that they have lost a couple already though. Maybe there was pilot error. Even the 206 will lose its whirly bits with the wrong inputs. Maybe the blades failed. That seems to be the only persisting weakness of the R44.
Time will tell. I hope the r66 does really well and makes those old 206's and 500's get even cheaper!
I also hope someone does a scottsbell47 on the 206 and buys the type certificate. Pipe dream maybe.