Imabell - Have to agree with your comments re the way mustering guys fly the machines. I said in another post I spent a week out with Heli Muster at VRD and was out with them every day. Most of the time it was with John Armstrong and we flew both the R-22 and for a trip back in time, the last 47 they had there.
Now I got photos of the old and the new ways of mustering and they are like chalk and cheese. In the old days it used to be flying around rip !!!! bust but now, after the majority of pilots attended a course from some US cowboy about low stress mustering techniques, they are flown in a cool calm and collected manner. When I first got there I thought I would see machines being stood on their nose and tail and on 45% angles through trees, how wrong could I have been. With the introduction of the new techniques its a softly softly approach and only when cattle were being stubborn or hiding under the trees would they go in and encourage them to move. Most of the time they stand off and the noise of the helicopter keeps the animals on the move.
In my opinion the reason they crashed so many Robbies, and even John A said it, was the lack of situational awareness. Getting into downwind situations, not watching where your tail rotor is when working down amongst the trees etc. I think if it was all Bell 47s or 300Cs being used the stats would be the same for them and people would be bagging them, but in reality it wouldnt matter what machine was being used in 99% of the accidents.
If Lu or anyone else goes back and looks at the stats I am sure you will find that it was one of the above mentioned causes that resulted in the accident, and nothing to do with the blades or the actual design of the R-22. Anyway to sum up my thoughts on that I would say that the R-22 is being unfairly blamed in this case. Now I am not a big fan of them and not an avid supporter. If they do the job, and do it properly then use them, if they dont get rid of them. Same goes for 300, Enstrom, whatever. Does mustering cause undue stress on the Robbies - nope. Do uneducated stock hands who learn to fly a helicopter and as Imabell said, treat it like a motorbike, cause problems - yep.
Again in my opinion I think the mustering industry created that problem for themselves, but out of necessity. They needed people who knew how to handle cattle and the fresh faced CPL didnt have a clue, so they had to do the next best thing, get someone from the bush who had an interest in wanting to fly. Problem solved but also problem created.
Now if you want to talk about Robbies being pushed beyond their limits, lets look at the guys here in Kiwiland that use them for venison recovery. Ever seen a R-22 with two heavy animals slung underneath dragging them to the side of a 2000ft drop and then hoping to hell that the machine will fly. Then when it gets off the edge the blades look like they are going to clap hands. NOW that is overstressing the machine.
Anyway thats my three cents worth.
