Nice try, Jeff, but you really know very little about civilian helicopters and how they're certified. You certainly know nothing of the FH1100 (that's obvious). Instead of listing all the aircraft that you're "current" in on your profile, maybe you should spend a little more time actually learning about these crazy contraptions. Just a thought, mm'kay?
I'll address only one thing in your mouth-foaming rant: FADEC in a single-engine helicopter with respect to
reducing pilot workload. Ooooh, it makes *starting* easier?? Big deal. Any competent pilot can easily start an L-4 - it doesn't take the skill of a Chuck Yeager/Aaron; it's not even that "high workload." With the Intellistart system, it's even easier and you don't need a single FADEC much less
dual-FADEC.
Jeff, all of the "advantages" you listed are cost benefits for the owner/operator/maintainer, *not* the pilot. That's great, but...in most
normal circumstances, FADEC makes NOT ONE LITTLE BIT of difference to the pilot.
Your automotive fuel injection analogy is silly. Just silly. Puh-leeze. Does FADEC offer better driveability (flyability?) and does it measurably reduce fuel consumption like fuel injection does? Does FADEC allow for increased TBO's? Do you get any real benefit because the N2/NR stay
exactly at 100% instead of merely "within limits?" FADEC *cannot* prevent an overtorque or overtemp in flight. Just silly. Go back to high school and learn to make better analogies.
And so I ask again: What does FADEC actually *do* for the pilot in normal ops? If the advantage is that it reduces long-term maintenance cost via higher initial purchase price
for the operator, then say so! If that's even true. But don't try to sell the dumb old pilots on how much easier FADEC will make their lives. You know how easily pilots are distracted by shiny, sparkly things.
I don't know about the rest of you hotdogs, but I don't spend a lot of my time (or *any* of it, actually) yanking up and down on my collective. How many of us actually do? Even the N2 in that old, creaky, antique 206B I fly stays right where it ought to stay without any extraordinary skill or monitoring on my part. And that B-model is stone-simple to start:
Push one button,
Open the throttle at 15%,
Release button above 60%,
Done.
You know what really
would make the 206 easier to start? A battery voltage gauge. You know, like the 407 with that fancy FADEC has. Because then you would KNOW when the start is going to be "iffy." FADEC won't even let the pilot attempt a start if the voltage is too low, and that's where pilots of older, non-FADEC ships get in trouble.
So I say: FADEC is complication for the sake of complication in a single-engine helicopter. Dual-FADEC is simply ridiculous, expensive overkill.
P.S. Actually, Frankie *did* hit the targets with the R-66.
EDIT: Oh, and by the way, my negative comments about the 505 are with respect to its role as a replacement for the 206B. In that regard it is an epic-fail, as the kids say. As a new/improved/bigger/more powerful R-66, it's probably spot-on
