WHy aren't there more helicopter owners on here?

Just curious. Both jets and helicopters are well out of my financial abilities. But, I note that many on here own large jets, yet few own copters...

Why?

I would think you could get more use out of a helicopter. You can fly on weekends, take short trips, land anywhere, etc.

I thought many helicopters had 400-500 mile ranges, so you could fly a decent distance, though I know you aren't going coast to coast .

Why the lack of helicopter ownership???

Bo

 

Helicopters have very limited usefulness. If you need to travel for more than a very short distance, it is faster in the long run to drive to an airport and take a much faster aircraft. Because they have a poor efficiency and are very expensive to operate you won't find them used for trips that are longer than an hour, and most trips are more like a half an hour. Typical helo's travel close to 120 mph and that isn't so much faster than a car that it makes sense with today's super highways. If you want to go 400 or 500 miles there are much better ways that are lot less expensive and faster than a helo. For what it takes to fly at 120 kts in a helo you could probably fly a King Air and get there twice as fast.

Only if you can't get to a conventional runway in a half an hour from your door does a helicopter make any sense at all. Now if you have a place on an island where there is no landing strip and it is less than 100 miles where you're traveling to, they can make a lot of sense, but even after that they are expensive to maintain and fly.

If you have a need to hover, or land anyplace (like the cops or lifeflight or if you are servicing an oil drilling rig in the gulf) then they make a lot sense, but for most missions that folks need to travel they really don't.

Some very wealthy have heliports and use them, but for most folks it's hard to justify the small time savings to the cost.

 

And let's not forget, they are noisy, and that can get annoying on a long flight.

 

I dont own one but would like one! but they have a very tiny margin for error as well. so for the casual flyer - to me it does not seem ideal.

 

A helicopter is 10,000 parts flying in loose formation...

 

Yes, and trying to disassemble itself.

 

Helicopters are a tremendous amount of fun, but not very practical for most private owners. For starters, if you can't land at your house, that takes away a great deal of the appeal.

Secondly, in most cases they aren't the most usable traveling machines. They are fairly slow, generally short range, and can't fly in any sort of icing. Most helicopters I have been around have very limited baggage space.

So basically, they aren't very practical for most people. As a toy, though, they are awesome!

 

I have a Robinson R-44 but it is currently leased out to a commercial operator. Problem with the Robinson's is that they require a complete overhaul every 12 years or 2,200 hours whichever comes first. So whether you use it or not it goes down in value a a very easy to calculate value. If you don't fly it at least 183 hours per year you are behind the curve. And my recent overhaul exceeded 170K.

The great thing about the Robinson is it's speed relative to other helicopters, some of which will barely do 80mph. And it typically doesn't need any maintenance between overhauls.

The guy I bought it from was running jet rangers and he said every time he turned around there was a 10,000 dollar repair bill. Another friend with an Astar had a 350K annual. Certainly not unusual for turbine powered aircraft unfortunately but with the limited use they have without a business purpose the costs can be considered high. All helicopters have many life limited items, including blades and transmissions etc.

 

I think I'm going to get my helicopter wings next. I own a business that usually has crews out in remote locations, and most of the people I have to meet with are nowhere near an airport. So, the chopper makes a bit more sense for someone like me, provided you can find an acceptable landing site that won't get you in trouble. If you're always going long distances to major airports - makes no sense at all. Too costly to justify when you consider what you can purchase and maintain a relatively fast airplane for.

I also think a lot of people are afraid of helicopters. I know quite a few, in fact.

 

Has anybody mentioned the skill level required? Lots of people have the time/money to go and learn to fly fixed wing aircraft and I don't think that is the same for helicopters. I can't think of any of my close friends who fly helos much less own one and probably half if them fly civilian aircraft.

 

my dad spent most of his career in aerospace/defense. he always said if flying a plane is like riding a bicycle, flying a helicopter is like riding a unicycle. it's a much more difficult machine to learn to control competently.

add that to everything mentioned above and it makes sense why so few people have helicopters.

 

What about some of the smaller choppers? At the annual airshow fly-in in Wisconsin last year they had several 100k$ or so choppers on display, 2 seaters. Non turbine, but looked cool. Not sure if these were kits, but I didn't think so... Are these not in vogue?

I though Robisnons were sub $250k heli's? I have seen used rangers for $500k. Are these just basket cases?

 

Maintenance costs for those two helis have been specifically addressed above. Operational costs are high on helicopters.

 

you have been watching too much TV and films...there is a great difference in the helicopters as seen on TV and movies and reality... they do not fly fast or far, payload is worthless, and are very expensive to operate... I saw an invoice a couple of years back for air ambulance for a 10 minute flight ( with patient ) $7500... did not include flight time to pick up patient or the return to base... and the operator is barely hanging on...
if the needs fit their profile, helicopters are a great tool

 

While not a heli, one of the coolest small rotary wings that I have seen is the Pal-v

PAL-V | Ultimate Freedom

 

That's pretty cool regardless of your needs or mission requirements.. Looks like just the thing James Bond would use!

 

I take it by 170 that means airframe, rotors, etc. In otherwords, everything is looked at or rebuilt? Is that dictated by Robinson? FAA?

 

Small recip helo's have historically been used as training aircraft since the cost of operation is lower and they have more simple systems and can be easier to fly. The problem is, since they have been used primarily for training, and are more difficult to fly than fixed wing aircraft, recip helo's have a horrible accident record. As a result of the historically high losses, insurance rates on recip helo's are really high. It used to cost less to insure a turbine helicopter than a recip, despite the higher initial aircraft cost. In fact, one of the reasons for Robinson to develop their turbine version was the much lower insurance rates for turbine powered helo's.

Bottom line is that the cost of insurance is very high for small helicopters which adds to the already high cost of operation, even though they might be less expensive to buy, they cost a lot to maintain and insure.

 

Seem this is the perfect personal turbine. From Magnum PI MD 500.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=zXyN_DNWBmE

 

I just sold my helicopter after 1 year of ownership. Loved flying it, but in the end it's pretty useless. I tried to get my homeowners association to permit a small landing pad in my area but no dice. Once the novelty wore off, and without the ability to utilize it from my home, it became expendable. Fun as hell though!

 

I fly a Schweitzer 300 CBi and a MD500 from time to time- as others have said, heli's are slow, loud and very impracticable but so much fun to fly. Have flown fixed wing for years and got bored so moved to the rotary. Have to fly a help 100% of the time so a lot more engaging and rewarding than planes IMO

 

When I rebuilt my R-44 the 170K was for the transmissions being rebuilt and new blades all around. The engine had already been rebuilt so that would of been even more. Doing this resets the clock and hour meter to 0.

The story I was told was that Robinson influenced the FAA to make the rebuild times mandatory ( may be part of the certification process), and they also have mandated flying times in order to fly it both for the new pilot and the instructor.

We always had just liability insurance and that alone was almost 6,000 per year. I think full coverage was somewhere around 40,000 per year on a 220,000 helicopter. So we went naked on the hull and towards the end I didn't even have liability insurance.

 

And at roughly the same cost