So if not Robinson then what?
Having mostly lurked on this forum for the past 18 months and kept up with the ongoing Robinson debacle; I find myself wondering, if not the Robinson products, then what?
This assuming you're not able or prepared to raid the family coffers; to take on ridiculous levels of debt or crawl along at snail's pace celebrating ATPL(H) on one's 60th.
I'd rather not hear about Robbie's being OK and wading through another battle of statistics; equally not interested in anymore Robbie bashing (think it's mostly been said on this forum which ever way you see things). I am however interested in and hoping for people's positive and constructive opinions around the alternative types and how they see them matching up in respect of training/SFH cost; availability and career prospects.
You'll notice I have left out safety, though clearly the number one priority, I think this is where things get murky when weighing up safety versus cost (the ultimate answer to which is don't fly at all?); otherwise seems to what degree is subjective and dependent on the individual's personal risk assessment criteria and circumstances. Either way it gets muddy and most likely would drag us full circle back into Robbie bashing, which I imagine after a while gets tuned out by those who see no viable alternative.
Here are some of my no doubt misled thoughts on other types: Schweizer too slow; Enstrom likened to flying a wardrobe; Cabri no availability in the south of the UK. So for me at least that leaves the B206 at 3 times the cost of the R22 (given some operators require you to have a safety pilot to SFH, is that common?).
Its not just for my sake that I ask this but I dare say countless others out there, who during their Robbie flying hours must wonder the same occasionally.
Back to lurking for another 18 months.