In article , Stu Fields
wrote:
Interesting report available from Helicopters only (www.helicoptersonly.com)
Titled: Special Investigation Report on the R-22 "Loss of Main Rotor Control
Accidents" Some very experienced pilots have died in crashes the caus of
which is not clear. The fatal accidents /100,000 flight hours are 2.5 times
greater in the R22 than the Huges 269 according to this report. The Report
contains quite a bit of detail about the investigation.

Too bad the web site is porrly laid out (no heirarchy of organization)
and I didn't see a link on any of the pages I viewed. But this is
probably the same report that was discussed here a few months ago.

http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/1996/SIR9603.pdf
http://groups.google.com/groups?th=5037cb80ff066cdb

This report was dated pre-SFAR 73, which makes it mostly irrelevant for
today's pilots. Granted there are flight regimes in the R-22 (and any
other two bladed teeting hub helicopter) that can make you have a bad
day. Since the SFAR was put in place, the R-22 accident rate has become
very small. It has (or at least had as of a few years ago) accident
rates (both accidents and fatal accidents that were fractions of the
accident rates for all GA aircraft. That doesn't make it seem like a
death trap to me.

Steve