Kevin O'Brien wrote:
The experience of flying a lot of different helos probably would have
helped. I think that negative transfer from a lifetime of flying Bells
was as big a contribution to the demise of Allen Barklage as the
exhaustively-discussed engine-out characteristics of the Mini-500.


I don't care about the rest of your discussion here, so no comment. But,
you got it wrong about Allen Barklage an his accident in his Mini-500.
The Mini-500 has excellent engine-out characteristics, as demonstrated
at almost every major air show. If properly set up by the builder, it
could autorotate and land safely as low as 40 mph. Allen had great
experience in his Mini-500 and was an expert at demonstrating autorotations.

Where would lack of transition time from one helicopter to another have
anything to do about Allan's accident, in the way you just tried to
convey here? None whatsoever. Allen took off in his Mini-500 after it
had an engine seizure due to improper jetting a flight before. He didn't
bother to inspect the engine for seizure damage, and just flew it away
as if nothing wrong had happened. Worse yet, he hugs the ground during
his flight, and flies over a power line complex without gaining
altitude. The engine finally failed over the lines, and he tried to milk
the rotor rpm for more than any helicopter could have offered, and nosed
into the ground after stalling the blades. Simple as that. It had
nothing to do with transition time from one helicopter to another. It
had already been determined that there is probably no single engine
helicopter built that could have lost it's engine at that time and
auturotated that distance at such a low altitude and landed safely.