Top .... I think you make a very fair point about skills . Putting the Robinson catastrophic failures to one side I think it becomes transparent that although this is the "first" helicopter for most ( due to being cheap ) .... Sadly it is not the most low time pilot friendly machine either . The reason there have been almost no fatal accidents ( I know of the sad recent one ) in the Enstrom is that it is the friendliest helicopter in the world to fly . It has no vices , you can abuse it in so many ways and it still doesn't bite . The Robinson is actually probably only safe , barring falling apart , in very experienced hands , which actually makes it far from ideal as a starter machine !!
Vmc at night for low to middle time pilots especially in the sparsely populated areas is eventually going to go wrong in my view . I just wish the powers that be would push for an IMC for night ops .