Dave
Nothing wrong with your idea as long as the machine you buy still had
decent component life in it, and hadn't been wrecked or something. If
you can afford it, I'd say do it. You can always rent it for a little
less than the local going rate and even make a few dollars with it
before you sell it again as run-out. In any event, it will prove to be
much cheaper than renting someone elses and you'll recover much, if not
ALL your money for the training costs. Make sure you get a GOOD
pre-purchase inspection by a mech (A&P) who is familiar with the R-22.
Do some more homework to make sure the numbers pencil out for you. I
know of a few guys who haqve done what you propose and were happy with
the outcome.
Nothing wrong with the R-22 as a trainer or for time building. Make
damned sure you don't fly it outside its design envelope and its
perfectly fine. The horrible reputation has come from those who tried
to do test flights with it (read that as pilots who got outside the
published recommendations and simply blew it). I don't much care for
them personally and honestly only have about 25 hours or so in them for
an instrument rating, and an instrument insructor rating. Most of my
9000+ hours of helicopters is in larger working machines so I am
admitedly jaded. Make the same kind of post over in JustHelicopters in
the alternate forum and you'll get some positive response. Avoid the
"original" forum until you get it figured out and realize that is a
free for all with a lot of jerks. See you there
Rocky
wrote:
rotor-heads,

I'm a private pilot with about 100 hrs fixed wing, and about 15 hrs in
the R-22 years ago. Sometimes I think about finishing that helicopter
add-on that I started and maybe build a significant number of hours.
I've seen used R-22s, within 300 hrs of refurbishment selling for
40-50k. Assuming I bought one of these and put 300 hours on it without
destroying it or getting myself killed, how much could I sell the hulk
back to robinson for refurbishment? And when you factor in
maintenance, hangar fees, and insurance are you better off just paying
the rental rate at a school, which approaches $200/hr from what I've
seen?

Also these little guys don't have much rotor inertia, and you have like
one second to drop the collective or die in the event of a power
failure, right? In the Army (I was not an aviator, just a cadet at
CTLT) I remember seeing a pilot momentarily moving his left hand to the
cyclic so he could take notes on his knee-board with his right. That
would probably not be advisable in an r-22.

Thanks,

Dave