light helicopters.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

Was killing time thinking about light helicopters and got to thinking about the R22 versus the Hughes 300.

When I owned a flight school I had an R22 for helicopter training.

I seldom ever flew it myself because I didn't like the thing, I bought it because I thought it would be a better choice cost wise.

If I had it to do all over I would choose the Hughes 300 because it is a far better machine and far nicer to fly.

Anyone here have an opinion about these machines?

[Nark]

I have opinions, but are they valid?

The Robbies are fine enough. There are thousands of them for a reason, just like the cirrus. There are certainly better platforms out there, for sure.

It takes a special kind of aircraft to get an SFAR (Special Federal Aviation Regulation) for the type. MU-2 comes to mind as well.

If I had the desire to get a 2 place heli, I’d look at the Hughes ahead of the Robby-22. The Robby has too many funky AD’s and life limited parts.

[Colonel]

I am no rotary wing expert, but I found the R44 a whole lot easier to fly than the R22.

The R22 is sort of a nasty practical joke. R44 is more expensive, but a much better
trainer IMHO.

I know they're cheap, but I'm not really fond of either one.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

When I flew for Project Okavanga in Africa we had a MI 8 as a camera ship, during the many months we were filming Africa I got to fly it on several occasions and it was a very impressive machine.

[Colonel]

Yeah, I know the bigots like to sh1t on the iron curtain stuff, but
I have found some of it to be very impressive, in many regards.