External load of 2,000kg and 1500kg on hook !!
Blimey! Sign me up then!!
Now I'm in no way a nay-sayer, nor indeed do I have any intention of eating a hat, but as I understand it right now the landing gear has to be changed after 500 landings (a "hover auto" counts for 25) and the two beams in the floor have to be changed every 500 hours. The endurance is not fantastic and the word on the street is that there are some CG issues depending on how the thing is ballasted empty. For a private operator it might be fine, but for use in commercial operations as of right now, I'm not so sure.
On top of that with regards to overhauling gearboxes and other components there are only a very select few places that are authorized to do it, which conveniently, are now owned by.........Bell.
Trust me, I'm a Bell fan, but it would appear that there are some things that have to be straightened out before we can say that it is a wonderful replacement for the trusty old 206.