t'aint natural / nr fairy
I agree that is the big problem with Robbies - a helicopter with not a lot of margin for error been flown by low time pilots / private owners. Dont know if anybody has ever bothered to do the stats on pilots / hours / type accidents, but I guess that by sheer number then, yes the Robbie would not fair too well.
headsethair. Yes I was generalising, but then again my old English teacher was a drunk, and very rarely turned up for class. Besides, we all know that the R44 is just a beefed-up R22, so I think it's fair to lump them all together as "Robinson", just in the same way as the LongRanger (different engine, transmission, body, tail boom, blades etc etc) is still a Bell 206.
Just a couple of points about Tim Tucker and his Robinson stats. Firstly, he works for Robinson, so he is going to be looking for the best way of "analysing" those stats from a Robinson-based viewpoint
Secondly, his view of the stats was critisised in the "professional" press as being much too simplistic - e.g. the R44 was the safest helicopter because it had been involved in the least reported incidents / accidents, not taking into account the number of aircraft in each fleet, hours flown by type etc etc.
I have no personal axe to grind about Robinsons or Tim Tucker's opinions. I have over 500 hours R22 time and enjoyed (nearly) all of it, and I did my FAA commercial GFT with Tim, who I found a very genial bloke.
However, what you do find is that Robbie pilots are fiercely loyal to their machines, sometimes beyond the point of reason. It's quite sweet, really! However, put them in a proper helicopter....
