Mark Six,
As the comments point out it may be a cultural thing!
No doubt the aircraft does really have a good service record if managed and operated correctly.
I only did about 400 hours on the type and would jump in one again tomorrow.
The history of the ADF use is not as squeaky clean as has been pointed out already -
Australian Department of Defence Evaluation of the AS 350 BA
In 1997, following a hydraulics-out landing accident, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF)
tasked a formal evaluation of the handling qualities of the AS 350 BA with a hydraulic system
malfunction. The goal of the test program was to determine if the flight manual emergency
procedures, approach and landing techniques, and operating limits for the AS 350 BA required
amending due to control forces, handling qualities, or control authority during hydraulic
malfunctions. The result of the assessment was that, during hydraulics-out flight at high gross
weight, the substantially reduced control authority, the considerably increased control free play,
and the greatly increased control forces in all control axes were unacceptable and caused a loss
of control during low-speed flight.
The Department of Defence report (AR-009-993) is approved for public release and in part
concludes that, with respect to hydraulics-out flight:
• the reduced control authority in the collective was unacceptable;
• the high forces in the collective control were unacceptable;
• the reduction in servo authority in cyclic control was unacceptable;
• the cyclic free play was unacceptable;
• the high forces in the longitudinal cyclic control axis were unacceptable; and
• the high forces in the lateral cyclic control axis were unacceptable.